Convergence
by lastincurableromantic
Summary: Sequel to Duality. As the Tenth Doctor heads towards the End of Time, the part human Doctor has to deal with the prophecies surrounding him and a telepathic link with the full Time Lord Doctor that, instead of weakening, is growing stronger by the day.
1. Prologue

**a/n: Although I have not ruled out writing another story in this 'verse, this is the final planned story in _The Slow Path_ series. It may be a bit of a roller coaster, and I will label a few chapters for slightly graphic content later in the story.**

**This is a work-in-progress, and I am not sure how regularly I'll be able to post, but it's more than half finished so it shouldn't be too long between chapters. And please note, although this story is not really a rewrite of the episode _The End of Time_, it may contain snippets of dialogue from that episode and does contain spoilers for it.**

**I want to thank everyone who has been even mildly involved in the writing of this series, in particular Bittie752 who has acted as beta, cheerleader, and chief hand-holder for a large portion of it, and Kelkat9 who listened to me whine about the end of this and helped clarify the direction that this eventually headed. Thanks, guys!**

**Last note. I have tried very hard to keep this entire series within canon, or at least so there are no major contradictions to canon through the episode _The End of Time_, and this story is no different.**

* * *

**Convergence**

_Converge (verb) – to move toward one point and join together: to come together and meet_

_Convergence (noun) – the process or state of converging._

~oOo~

**Prologue**

_This is the story of how I died._

_I grew up on a beautiful __planet – but _ a planet where for countless millennia nothing ever happened. My people had almost god-like power over all of time and space, and yet they were content only to observe from a distance, never to travel, never to interact with what they considered lesser beings. 

_I, on the other hand, had wanderlust, a thing unheard of among my people, and I wasn't content to simply watch the universe from a distance. And so I stole a TARDIS and fled._

_For almost a thousand years I traveled through all of time and space. The universe was as wondrous a place as I had always imagined. There was so much to do, so much to see. I traveled to meet new people, breathe new air, see new stars above my head and feel new ground beneath my feet. And along the way I met friends, so many friends, many of whom traveled with me. Some, like Nyssa and Ace, were invited, while others, like Leela and Tegan, weren't, but all became very dear to me and when they left, my hearts were always a bit broken._

_But while we traveled, my friends and I, we tried to fight evil, to right wrongs, to make a stand and do what was right when everyone else ran away. It was a good life. _

_But then came the War. The Last Great Time War. The War I ended. The War I intended not to survive. But survive I did. Friends and enemies alike all died, and I was left alone. The Last of the Time Lords._

_But then I met a girl. A beautiful human girl. Rose. And I saved her life and she saved mine and suddenly I wanted to live again._

_We traveled. Sometimes we traveled with others, but in the end it was just the two of us. Better with two, she said. And she was right. Oh, how she was right. And as her people would say, I fell for her. Hard. Head over heels. Arse over teakettle. And everyone, friends and enemies alike, all knew how I felt for her._

_Eventually in our travels we encountered an old enemy, an enemy that shouldn't have existed, and I sent her home to save her life. And in true Rose fashion she wouldn't hear of it. She ripped apart the TARDIS and absorbed the Time Vortex and came back and saved me. But it was killing her, so I gave up a life to save hers._

_And in the fires of regeneration, I was reborn out of love for her._

_We traveled again, and after a few miss-starts we grew closer than ever. I was happier than I had ever been in any of my lives._

_But then I lost her. _

_Again to save her life I sent her away, and again she came back. _

_When she came back I was angry, furious at her for being so impulsive as to leave her mother forever and risk dying for me. Didn't she know, didn't she understand that I was trying to save her, that I couldn't bear the thought of her dying? But in the face of my anger she was calm and reasoned when she told me she was never going to leave me. And it was then that I truly understood the depths of her feelings for me._

_Her words both thrilled and terrified me. No one had ever felt for me the way that she did. And inwardly I vowed to never send her away again. _

_But in the end I lost her anyway._

_The love of my life, the reason for my very existence was gone, trapped in a parallel dimension, and there was nothing I could do. It was impossible._

_But Rose Tyler never takes impossible for an answer. Against all odds, she found a way back to me. At the moment I saw her again, standing alone on that darkened, bombed out street, for one brief instant I thought the universe was being kind for a change. Everything I wanted in the universe was wrapped up into one human girl, and there she was in front of me. I ran to her, flat out, just wanting to hold her again in my arms._

_And then I was shot. And I realized the gods weren't kind, they were impossibly cruel, holding her out for one instant only to snatch her away._

"_Your song is ending."_

_Those four words had followed me since Donna and I were on the Ood homeworld. For a long time I stubbornly refused to believe what they meant, but oh, I knew. Deep down, I knew. _

_I was going to die. Not just regenerate, but die._

_These are the things I thought about as I lay on the pavement, my head cradled in the lap of the woman I loved more than life itself, content that at least I saw her one last time before I died._

_But I didn't die, not that time at any rate. Instead I began to regenerate, and in an effort to stay with Rose I tried to halt the regeneration and accidentally created the meta-crisis._

_And I lost her again. This time for good._

_And the words that heralded my death continued to follow me._

"_Your song is ending."_

_Words have power. I once used six words to take down a government._

"_Don't you think she looks tired?"_

_There were four words to predict the return of the Master._

"_You are not alone."_

_Four words to predict my death._

"_Your song is ending."_

_But there are two words that have saved me in the past, and only two words could save me now. _

"_Bad Wolf."_


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

_Previously in Duality:_

_He turned, and he caught sight of a billboard advertising strawberry banana Vitex, startling him so much he swerved and only narrowly avoided causing an accident. At the jerking motion, Rose stirred for a moment and then fell back asleep. Heart pounding, he pulled over to the side of the road and stared at the sign in front of him._

"_Doctor, did you still want the information on the Golden Goddess?" Tosh asked._

"_Uh, yeah, Tosh," he said absently. "Go ahead." While he watched, Pete Tyler's image grinned at him. _

"_The Golden Goddess first appeared in legends around three thousand years ago. She was also known as the Goddess of Time, the Protector of Briton and Wales, and the Defender of the Earth. She's usually described as being a beautiful woman with blonde hair and golden eyes, but she has also been depicted as a large, golden wolf." _

_On the billboard, Pete lifted a bottle of the bright pink liquid in a toast and then winked while across the top of the sign flashed the words 'the two shall be reunited'. _

_But the Doctor noticed none of it. Instead, his heart pounded as his eyes were drawn to two words that someone had painted across the bottom right-hand corner of the sign._

_BAD WOLF_

~oOo~

With the sight of those two words, he couldn't breathe. It was as if all the air had suddenly been sucked out of the car. His mind spun out of control as the implications of Toshiko's words hit home.

_The Golden Goddess, the Goddess of Time. _

_Goddess of the Time… Vortex._

_Defender of the Earth. _

"_Rose Tyler, Defender of the Earth."_

_The Golden Wolf. _

_The Bad Wolf. _

"_I am the Bad Wolf."_

Swallowing nervously, he tore his eyes away from the sign and glanced at Rose. She was peacefully, blissfully, thankfully asleep.

"But I removed all the Time Vortex from you," he whispered pleadingly.

But he hadn't, he remembered with a start. She still had a bit of the Time Vortex in her. He had discovered that when testing her to find out why she had been able to get the baby TARDIS to grow simply by holding it.

"_Artron energy," he said, staring at her in shock. "You, Rose Tyler, are full of artron energy." He closed his mouth, moving it around as if he were tasting something. He nodded. "Artron, Void, with just a hint of huon radiation, chronal energy and Time Vortex." _

But she had been able to do more than just help the baby TARDIS grow. Her body healed too rapidly when injured. And her genetics were perfect. Owen Harper had discovered that when testing to see why she had been able to travel repeatedly between the universes without physical damage.

"_It's impossible," Owen said. "I have never seen anyone with nothing wrong. Even the healthiest people in the world will have a touch of arthritis, evidence of a previous bone break, a cavity, a cold sore. She has nothing. And she should. She broke her wrist about five years ago, I set it myself, and not only has it completely healed, but there is no evidence it was ever broken. That shouldn't be possible. Other than being overly tired and a bit thin, she is physically perfect. So I looked at her genetically. Again, physically perfect. Not one coding sequence out of order. I've never seen that. I've never even heard of that. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would have said it was statistically impossible."_

And Rose told him she had been able to tell whether or not she was in the right universe just by feel.

_"I could get a sense immediately if the universe I was in was the wrong one," Rose said. "I don't know how. It was just a feeling in my skin—no, kinda in my whole body—that told me whether or not I had made it. I don't know how it worked, or how I knew, but I was always right. I always knew when we were off."_

Even he had never been able to do that. The first time they had ended up in Pete's World, it had taken a sky full of zeppelins before he had realized they had crossed over into another universe.

But there had to be more. If she was still Bad Wolf, if the power of Bad Wolf still existed in her even in a small way after all these years, there had to have been more hints than that. There _had_ to have been. He quickly scanned his memory, trying to remember anything that seemed out of the ordinary, no matter how small or insignificant it seemed at the time.

He suddenly remembered her fight against the Kern when they tried to take over her.

_"Rose," he said desperately, "Don't give up. Do whatever you have to do to fight it."_

_She looked over at him, her eyes still glowing blue._

_"I'm sorry," she mouthed and closed her eyes, but this time when she reopened them, they shone with an unearthly golden light._

_Suddenly, there was a roaring sound and a blinding flash of light and the Doctor could feel an almost searing heat on the exposed skin of his face and hands._

He should have known, should have realized it was more than just artron energy that she had used to protect herself.

But he should have known even before then, even before they had gotten to Pete's World, even before the meta-crisis. He scanned his memories again. And his mind flashed back to the conversation he'd had with Donna in the fortune teller's stall on Shan Shen.

"_What was her name?" he asked._

"_I don't know!" Donna protested._

"_Donna," he said quietly but firmly, trying to rein in his desperation, "what was her name?"_

"_She told me…" Donna said, "to warn you. She said… two words."_

"_What two words? What were they? What did she say?"_

"_Bad Wolf."_

And when they left the fortune teller's stall, every surface on Shan Shen, signs, banners, buildings, even the TARDIS itself, was covered with the words Bad Wolf.

How could she, Rose Tyler, have done that, and from a universe away? There was only one explanation. Only one thing that made sense.

She was still Bad Wolf.

How could he have been so wrong? How could he have not seen it?

He raked a hand anxiously through his hair. Maybe he just hadn't wanted to see it, he thought. But now it all made sense. It all made horrible, horrible sense.

Not only that, but Rose had been right all along. Something _was_ coming. The prophecies, both his and his counterpart's, echoed in his ears.

"_Your song is ending."_

"_I am the Bad Wolf."_

"_Your song is ending."_

"_I want to keep you safe, My Doctor."_

"_The two shall be reunited."_

"_Your song is ending."_

The Doctor's song. The _other_ Doctor's song.

"_The two shall be reunited."_

Was she going to try to save him? Were they, she and his fully Time Lord self, going to be reunited once again?

He looked over at Rose again. The love of his life. Sleeping so peacefully. Unaware that what was coming could rip them apart.

He looked back up at the billboard in front of him, where the image of Pete Tyler was winking at him, seemingly mocking him, while again across the top of the sign flashed the words he was beginning to dread.

_The two shall be reunited._

If the two were to be reunited, where did that leave him?

"It's not fair," he said under his breath. Suddenly he realized Toshiko's voice was calling to him through the mobile and had been for more than a minute.

"_Doctor, Doctor, are you still there?"_

"Yeah, I'm here," he said softly as to not wake Rose. He pulled back onto the street, not wanting Rose to see the sign, the sign heralding the possible end of their relationship. "Sorry, my mind drifted a little bit."

"_Are you okay? You sound a little odd,"_ she said.

"Yeah, I'm alright," he told her. "I'm always alright."

~oOo~

_Two weeks later…_

The Doctor parked in the car park behind the Torchwood-owned Plass Hotel and headed towards the Tourist Office that served as the entrance to Torchwood Three. As he walked the short distance across Roald Dahl Plass, he tightened his anorak against the bitter wind that was beginning to whip across the bay.

All around him were signs of the approaching holidays. The hotel boasted garland strung across its entrance. The wall of the Millennium Center had a cheerful banner wishing everyone a happy Christmas, while someone had placed wreathes around the necks of the colorful elephant statues that stood in front of the Millennium Center's doors. Someone had even placed a Santa hat on the head of the statue of Ivor Novello.

Despite it still being technically late afternoon, since it was winter it was fully dark out, and the heavy cloud cover made it even darker by blocking even the dim light that would have been provided by the moon. The lampposts that lined the Plass, as well as the ones that lined the pavement around the bay, were already illuminated, glowing red and green in honor of the season.

The Tourist Office was closed so the Doctor let himself in with his sonic screwdriver. As an unofficial member of Torchwood he could have had a key of his own, but he didn't bother with it since he always had his sonic with him. It would work on anything, well, anything other than wood or deadlock seals, so he rarely bothered with keys, not even for the house or the car. The TARDIS had always been an exception; she had never liked him using his sonic on her door so he had always used an actual key for her and expected to with the new TARDIS as well.

Again with his sonic, he unlocked the doors and entered the atrium through the circular doorway that marked the entrance to the Hub itself, only to be greeted with a blast of what could only be loosely called music being played at full volume and emanating from autopsy. Gritting his teeth, and wondering if the sound was going to damage his now part human hearing, he walked through the room, hands over ears, and climbed the stairs to the workstations.

Toshiko Sato was sitting at her computer. Near her paced Gwen Williams with baby Anwen in her arms. She was bouncing slightly as she walked, trying to comfort the wailing infant. An infant who could barely be heard over the music.

"What is that?" the Doctor asked by way of greeting. He had to shout to make himself heard. "Sounds horrible."

Toshiko turned to him, responding at the same volume. "Owen's favorite song nowadays," she said in disgust. "He plays it constantly."

"And if he's not playing it, it's on the radio," Gwen added. "It's been number one on the charts for weeks."

Grimacing, the Doctor said, "Sounds like the mating call of the great horned ornthrox on Belzius Two."

If the two women were surprised by the off-world reference, they didn't show it.

"Can't anyone get him to shut it off?" he continued.

"I've tried, but he's obsessed with it," Tosh answered. "Ianto's gone to try this time. If Owen doesn't shut it off now, I'm cutting the power to Autopsy."

The sound cut off abruptly and was replaced by quiet Christmas music, music the Doctor could hardly hear due to the ringing in his ears.

"Thank God," Gwen said vehemently. Baby Anwen continued to cry, and Gwen began to rub her back and coo soothingly. Slowly the infant quieted and drifted off to sleep.

With the Doctor's ears still ringing, he missed the next thing Toshiko said to him.

"Pardon?" he asked.

"I said, the sound isn't supposed to be a mating call," Tosh answered. "It's supposed to be the howling of wolves."

"In fact," Gwen added quietly, "that's what it's called. _The Howling of the Wolf_."

"By Los Lobos Malos," Ianto said as he climbed the stairs to join them.

_Los Lobos Malos_, the Doctor thought. Spanish for _The Bad Wolves_. He didn't flinch, despite hearing yet another reference to Bad Wolf.

There were few things that scared the Doctor: Daleks, particularly since the War; hurting his friends, damaging them in some way as Davros had accused the other him of doing while they were on the Crucible; losing control of himself as he had on the planet Midnight and as he almost had when he was with Martha on the cargo ship in the Torajji system. But nothing terrified him as much as Bad Wolf. The memory of Rose emerging from the TARDIS at the Game Station, glowing gold from being filled with the Time Vortex itself, was enough to fill him with both wonder and dread.

When Rose had looked into the heart of the TARDIS she had become Bad Wolf, had for a short time literally become the goddess of the Time Vortex.

In his travels he had met beings with the power of gods before, but none had been as good, as caring, as human as Bad Wolf. None had led him to sink to his knees. None had been both goddess and the woman he loved.

But just as she was saving his life the power was killing her from the inside.

And now it appeared she was returning.

Ever since seeing the graffiti on the Vitex billboard, he had encountered reference after reference to either Bad Wolf or the Golden Goddess everywhere he went: Blaidd Drwg, the name of a Cardiff gang, tagged on walls and underpasses near Splott; a new pizza place down by the train station called Lupo Cattivo Pizzeria; _Red_, a new play at the local theater which was a reworking of the fairy tale _Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf._ And now _The Howling of the Wolf_ by Los Lobos Malos. Each time he had encountered one, he had tried to steer Rose clear of the reference. So far she hadn't seemed to notice, but he didn't know how long that would continue, not with more and more references cropping up everywhere.

He had also tried to block Rose from hearing the phrase _the two shall be reunited_, something he was also running into with increasing regularity. It wouldn't take a genius to put two and two together, and Rose was brilliant. She'd have probably put it together faster than he did.

Absentmindedly, he reached in his pocket and felt for the small velvet box he had placed there earlier that day. The box he had purchased, but the ring inside he had made himself. The band had been formed from platinum coins he had brought with them from the TARDIS, melted down and engraved using his sonic screwdriver, while the stone itself was the rare blue diamond he had originally used to make his sonic in this world. He liked the symbolism of giving her part of something that was so important to him.

He had been working on the ring for weeks, even before their most recent trip to London, but since then he had put his efforts into high gear, only putting the finishing touches on it last night and only purchasing the box on the way over to the Hub. Although he had initially intended to propose over Christmas, part of him didn't want to wait, even though Christmas was only two days away. That small, insecure, jealous part of him wanted to bind her to him, to have her committed to him in marriage before whatever was coming actually arrived. The rest of him knew it wouldn't matter. A wedding wouldn't prevent anything, not to mention he felt he was running out of time. As the prophecies escalated, he could feel the specter of a brewing storm on the horizon and knew the time before whatever was coming was growing short.

~oOo~

From her office, Rose heard Owen's music filter up from the lower levels of the Hub. It was that same song again; for some reason he always seemed to play the same song over and over. At first she had liked it, the pounding beat of the bass line syncing with the beating of her heart. But lately the song was making her uneasy for some reason she couldn't put her finger on. She was about to go down and order him to turn it off or she'd turn it off for him, as well as shove his MP3 player so far up his arse only A & E could retrieve it. She got as far as walking to her office door and opening it when the music abruptly changed to a Christmas song that she believed to be unique to Pete's World, or at least one she had never heard in her home universe. Either way, it was much quieter than the last song. She sighed in relief.

From the doorway she noticed that Gwen and the Doctor had both arrived and were standing at Toshiko's workstation with her. Gwen had her baby with her, although Rose couldn't see Rhys, Gwen's husband, anywhere.

As she watched Ianto joined the others. As they began to talk, she saw that the Doctor didn't seem to be listening. He had a distant, distracted look on his face, the look he always got when he was deep in thought, trying to solve a problem that was puzzling him. For not more than a moment she wondered what it was, but that thought was quickly replaced by the sight of the puffy blue anorak he was wearing. When the weather turned from the warmth of summer to the cool of autumn, he had been forced to buy it after looking everywhere locally and spending hours searching online for a long, brown overcoat like he used to own and which had stayed with the fully Time Lord Doctor.

Thoughts of the coat suddenly reminded Rose she needed to make a phone call. Grateful she hadn't been spotted by anyone, particularly the Doctor, she backed up and quietly closed the door. Then she quickly pulled out her mobile and dialed.

"Hi, Mum," she said when her mother answered. "Did it come yet?"

"_No, sweetheart_," Jackie responded, "_and believe me they got a piece of my mind. But they said it would be ready tomorrow, and if it's not here by lunchtime I'm gonna go down there and sit in the waiting room until it's done_."

"Thanks, Mum," Rose said. "I don't know what I'd do for a present if it wasn't ready."

"_I'm sure he'd understand_," her mother said.

"I know, but this is our first Christmas together since we were separated, and I want it to be special."

"_It will be because you're together_," Jackie replied, and not for the first time Rose realized that her mother was truly a romantic at heart. It was particularly obvious when she was with Pete. Although she nagged him, sometimes mercilessly, she deeply loved him, just as she had Rose's father.

"_So when are you getting' here_?" Jackie continued.

"Probably late afternoon tomorrow," Rose told her. "Depends on the weather. But we'll definitely be there tomorrow."

"_You better_," her mother said. "_Tomorrow's Christmas Eve. We were hopin' you two would be here today_."

"I told you, we've got the staff Christmas party tonight," Rose said.

Jackie made another token protest, this time complaining that Torchwood Three's Christmas party hadn't taken place earlier in the season. Rose knew where this was headed since they'd had the conversation before: they could have been there days by now, she never saw Rose anymore, what were the holidays for anyway, Tony was growing up and at this rate he'd hardly know his sister since she was so far away, and on and on and on. Rose cut the conversation short by again promising that she and the Doctor would be there tomorrow and said goodbye. As much as she loved her mother, when her mother got like that, ringing off was always a relief.

She quickly grabbed her coat, a heavier, wool-lined version of the leather jacket she had worn while universe-hopping with the dimension cannon, and pulled it on while she joined the others on the workstation level. As soon as the Doctor saw her, he slipped his hand out of his pocket and took her hand in his. She stood on her tiptoes to give him a light, brief kiss.

"Hello," she said with a bright grin for him, a grin he returned.

"Hello," he replied and leaned forward to kiss her again. Ianto cleared his throat.

"Shouldn't we be going?" he asked pointedly.

"So where's Rhys?" Rose asked Gwen as the other woman was putting Anwen in her infant carrier. Anwen was now in a heavy, warm outfit suitable for the winter weather, and Gwen was tucking her in with a warm blanket.

"He's running late. He said he'd meet us there," Gwen answered. She shoved the nappy bag at Ianto. "Here, you carry this." Ianto looked pained.

"Even occasional politeness would be appreciated," he said, putting the strap of the bag over his shoulder. Gwen ignored him.

Rose looked around. The Doctor, Gwen, Ianto, Tosh, and Owen were there, Rhys would join them later… but someone else was missing too. She turned to Toshiko. _Where's Lisa_, she mouthed.

Tosh rolled her eyes._ They broke up again_, she mouthed back.

Rose sighed and nodded. That was the third time in as many months. She really felt sorry for Ianto. He and Lisa just didn't seem to be able to make it work. Not for the first time, she wondered who the parallel Ianto was with. She didn't want to play matchmaker, but maybe finding the right person for him would help both him and Lisa move on.

"Well, then, if we're all set," the Doctor said. He shoved a Santa hat on his head, picked up a bag of presents off the floor, and hefted it over his shoulder. Then he turned back to them and gave them a wide, manic grin. "Allons-y!"


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

They had decided to hold the Christmas party at a pub called the Black Swan that was just around the Bay from the Hub. Due to its location as well as its excellent but reasonably priced food, it was one they all frequented on a fairly regular basis.

When they arrived there, the Doctor spotted a handwritten note next to the pub's front door, just above the obligatory posted menu, stating that the pub had recently changed ownership. He immediately glanced up and noticed a new sign hanging over the door.

It was now called The Golden Goddess, and underneath the name was painted a silhouette of a woman with arms outstretched. A golden wolf lay next to her feet.

"That's a coincidence," Toshiko said, nodding at the new sign. "The Doctor was just asking about…"

The Doctor quickly interrupted her. "Why don't we head inside," he suggested. He placed his hand on the small of Rose's back and ushered her through the door, hoping she hadn't noticed anything.

An hour later they were seated in a quiet corner of a pub, the remains of their dinner in front of them. Probably due to the bad weather, the pub was half empty, and the other nearby tables were vacant.

Rhys arrived just as they finished eating. Obviously trying to get into the spirit of the thing, he was wearing a monstrously ugly Christmas jumper, a bright blue one with the image of a reindeer on the front.

He stopped at the bar to order before joining them.

"Typical," Gwen said as he approached the table. "Just in time for pudding and presents." She patted his belly, and the reindeer's nose lit up in red.

"Hello, luv," he said as he kissed his wife's cheek. "Oh, and how's my big girl?" He picked up Anwen from her carrier and held her as he sat down.

As a waiter came over and cleared the table of the dishes, the Doctor clapped his hands together. "So, what shall we do first?" he asked.

Almost everyone immediately answered 'pudding'.

"Presents," Rose said firmly. When everyone turned to her, she repeated, "Presents." She raised her eyebrows at the Doctor.

"Alright," the Doctor said. "The boss has spoken. Presents it is."

Owen made the sound of a whip being cracked, and Toshiko elbowed him.

Ignoring Owen, the Doctor picked up the bag of presents that was sitting on the floor.

The custom at the Torchwood Three Christmas parties was to hold a Secret Santa exchange. Everyone's name would be placed in a hat, and each person would draw out the name of someone to give a gift to. There was a price limit of no more than £10, preferably far less, and giving re-gifted presents was strongly encouraged. Other than saying who they were for, the presents were unmarked as half the fun was to guess who the giver was.

"Okay, who's first?" the Doctor asked as the waiter arrived with Rhys's order. Rhys handed the baby to Gwen and tucked into his food just as the Doctor pulled out a small, flat package. "This one's for… Ianto."

The younger man took the package from him and carefully began to take off the paper. Gwen groaned.

"You're supposed rip it off," she protested.

Ianto quirked an eyebrow at her, ripped the paper off without looking, and tossed it over his shoulder. As everyone applauded, Ianto gave the gift in his hands a quick glance. He scowled at Owen, who smirked back.

"So, what is it?" Rose asked.

Ianto showed off the copy of LLM's latest album he had been given. When the Doctor realized what it was, he quickly pulled another present out of the bag. "Ahh, this one's for Gwen. It's labeled, 'for use at work'."

It was a set of earplugs.

"I think we all need a set of these," she said, chuckling.

Reaching in his pocket, Ianto said, "I bought enough for everyone." He tossed a set to everyone except Owen. "As you're the one creating the need for these, you don't get any."

The next present was a soft, squashy one that turned out to be a t-shirt for Owen. He took one look at it and his eyes narrowed. He scanned the others suspiciously.

"Alright, which one of you gave this to me," he said. "I know it couldn't be Ianto because he gave Gwen the earplugs. And I doubt it was Gwen because she wasn't there…" His eyes shifted between the Doctor and Rose. "So which one of you was it?"

"What is it?" Gwen asked.

Owen ignored her so Rose snatched it out of his hand. She took one look at it and burst out laughing. She held it up. On the front was a photo manip of Owen as a superhero, complete with fists on hips and a cape blowing behind him, and on the back…

"Autopsy Boy?" Gwen and Rhys said in unison. They could barely contain their laughter.

"Well, if Tyler didn't have this made, then it had to be the Doctor," Owen said.

The Doctor threw up his hands in denial. "It wasn't me," he said.

"When we broke into Torchwood Four a couple of months ago, Owen was being a git, like usual, and the Doctor called him 'autopsy boy'," Rose told Gwen and Rhys.

"So it had to be you," Owen said to the Doctor.

"It wasn't me," the Doctor said again.

"I know it wasn't either Gwen or Rhys, because they didn't know about it," Owen said, "and I know it wasn't Ianto, and if it wasn't the two of you…"

They all turned as one to face Toshiko, who was shaking with silent laughter.

"You?" Owen demanded. "I can't believe it!"

She shrugged and began to laugh. "I thought it suited you... Autopsy Boy."

They finished handing out the gifts: a re-gifted silk scarf for Rose from Gwen which had originally been intended for Lisa, and a handwritten promise from Rhys to tune-up Toshiko's car. When they reached the bottom of the bag they realized there hadn't been presents for either Rhys or the Doctor.

"Hmmm," the Doctor said. "Seem to have forgotten to put in my present for Rhys." He began to pat the pockets of his jacket. "It's got to be here somewhere. Now where did I put it…" He shoved a hand deep into his left jacket pocket, far deeper than it should have been able to go. "Oh, here it is." With that he pulled out something the size of his fist and tossed it to Rhys, who caught it neatly in one hand.

"What is it?" Rhys asked as he examined it. "A rock? Is it some kind of alien rock or somethin'?"

"Nah," the Doctor said. "Found it in the car park on the way over here." He paused for a beat and then grinned. "Just kidding. It really is an alien rock. That's a Ranous stone for Ranoulian, a planet on the outer reaches of the Denolian Cluster. Its molecules vibrate at a frequency just slightly lower than the bottom range of conscious human hearing, but the sound registers on a subconscious level and promotes relaxation and sleep. Thought you could use it with Anwen when she gets fussy. And if you put it in the sunlight during the day, it will glow all night, so you wouldn't need a night light."

The still new parents stared at him. "Is it safe to be around the baby?" Rhys asked.

"Safe as houses," the Doctor told them. "Just don't let her try to eat it."

"Why?" Gwen asked quickly. "Is it poisonous or something?"

"Toxic," the Doctor corrected. "And no. Not toxic, not poisonous. Just tastes horrible." He shuddered and stuck out his tongue. "Bleh."

"And he would know. He tastes everything," Rose said dryly.

"The sense of taste is an excellent method of collecting and analyzing data," he protested.

Rose continued as if he hadn't spoken. "I've seen him taste blood, walls, the TARDIS…" She rolled her eyes. "He puts more things in his mouth than Anwen does." She pulled a face. "Disgusting. Absolutely disgusting."

"Oi, watch it, Earth girl!" he said, but without heat since he knew she was teasing him.

She grinned at him, her wide, teasing grin with her tongue touching her teeth. "Okay," she said. "There's one more present, then pud." She gestured to the waiter who disappeared into the kitchen. He came back out almost immediately carrying a large tray with a domed silver lid, which he put down on a nearby table.

"Since everyone else has given their presents, this one is obviously from me," Rose said. The waiter uncovered the tray and placed a large cream pie in front of the Doctor.

"Is this…" he asked hopefully.

She grinned. "Yep," she said, over-pronouncing the last letter. "Banana cream with a layer of chocolate, all covered with extra thick homemade whipped cream. Had to order it special, _and_ tell them how to make it." She grimaced when he immediately stuck a finger in it, scooped out a glop of all three layers and promptly put in his mouth. "Don't worry, I ordered a second one for the rest of us if anyone wants some."

The Doctor scooped out some more, which he then fed to Rose. Some whipped cream got on her face, and he licked it off.

"Disgusting," Owen said.

Rose raised her eyebrows at him. "This from the man who's been spending some quality time in Storage Cupboard Three with Tosh?" Tosh turned a bright red. "Sorry, Tosh."

"But the two of you have been pretty obvious about it," Ianto added.

The Doctor stared at Owen and Toshiko in shock. "You and Tosh have been using Storage Cupboard Three for…" He turned to Rose, who shrugged. "But that was _our_ storage cupboard," he whinged. He sighed heavily, his irritation evident. "Now we're gonna have to find a different one."

~oOo~

As soon as they left the party, the Doctor grew uncharacteristically quiet again. He had dropped Rose off at work that morning so that they could drive home together, and as he drove, he seemed preoccupied with his thoughts, pensive even, just as he had been when he had first arrived at the Hub. He had been doing that a lot lately in the last couple of weeks, Rose thought, and she wondered if it had anything to do with the sense she had that something was coming, a feeling that was increasing by the day.

"Nice party, yeah?" she said, mostly to break the silence.

The Doctor started, seeming startled by the sound of her voice. "What? Oh, yeah, nice party," he agreed and then fell silent again. Inwardly, Rose shrugged, figuring that he would eventually tell her what was bothering him.

To Rose's surprise, he bypassed the motorway, instead making a circuitous route through Cardiff itself. "Why are we going this way?" she asked.

"There was an accident earlier," he said. "Just want to avoid the area in case it isn't completely cleared away." He was studiously not looking at her, and if she didn't know better she'd have thought he was trying to hide something. But what could he be hiding on the way home on the motorway? It didn't make sense, so she just chalked it up to him being him and the odd mood he had been in recently.

They lapsed into silence again, with him not saying a word all the way back to the house. The longer the silence continued, the more worried Rose got. Finally, after she left the en suite in their bedroom, she saw him standing at the window, staring out into the night, and she couldn't stand it anymore.

"Doctor, is everything alright?"

He turned to her, and for a split second she thought she saw something in his face that looked a lot like fear. Whatever it was almost instantly disappeared. He gave her a soft smile.

"Yeah," he said. "Everything's fine."

But his words didn't match his actions. He crossed the room and pulled her into his arms, hugging her so tightly she could barely breathe. After a minute, he loosened his grip on her enough to meet her eyes. He cupped her face. "Rose…" he began but then didn't finish the thought. Instead, he slowly bent his head to hers and softly kissed her.

And then he took her hand and led her to bed.

He made love to her more tenderly than he had since the first night they had made love. The gentle way he kissed and caressed her, tracing patterns on her skin with his fingertips and lips, was heartbreaking in its beauty and she was almost moved to tears at the intensity with which he looked at her. Afterwards, as they lay side by side in bed, he rested his forehead on hers and projected his love for her, showing her the moments he treasured, starting with run, going through regeneration and meta-crisis, all the way to the current moment. At that she did cry, tears involuntarily leaking and running along the curves of her face to ultimately dampen her pillow. She projected her love back in the way he had taught her to do over their months together, not nearly as strongly as he had since she wasn't naturally telepathic, but still she could feel his joy at her mental touch. They swirled around each other, soul to soul, colors and images and feelings soaring in a mental dance that led to a merging of soul and spirit far more intimate and loving than the physical love they had just shared.

Finally, both exhausted by the effort of maintaining the link, they broke apart. She met his eyes and cupped his face with her free hand, caressing with her fingertips his sideburn and jaw. She had seen a glimmer of something, something he hadn't wanted to show her. He had done a good job of covering it up, but she had been able to sense just a touch of worry and jealousy and fear associated with it. She didn't know what it was, but she could make a good guess, she thought.

"You know I love you, yeah?" she said to him softly. "And that I'm never leavin' you. I'm planning on spending the rest of my life with you, no matter how long or short that is."

An odd look came over his face, one she couldn't interpret, and then he swallowed nervously. "Rose, I…" He broke off, as if he wasn't sure he wanted to finish the thought, and when he continued, she got the sense that he had changed his mind about what he wanted to say. "Rose, I love you, so much, and no matter what happens, no matter what the future holds, I want you to know that that will never change."

It seemed like such an odd thing to say that she caught his nervousness. "You're… you're not planning on leaving me, are you?"

His eyes widened in total shock, and he shook his head vigorously. "No," he said quickly. "No, I am never, ever, ever leaving you. I just meant… I just meant I love you."

She could hear raw honesty in his voice, and she believed him. She moved forward to wrap her naked body around his, skin touching skin, head on his shoulder, arm and leg draped over him, and he pulled her closer still and rested his cheek on the top of her head.

"Good night, Rose Tyler," he whispered. He placed a kiss in her hair, and she snuggled even tighter against him.

She tilted her head up and he kissed her lightly on the lips. "Good night, Doctor. I love you."

"I love you, too."

~oOo~

Rose awoke later to the bed shaking slightly. The Doctor was restless, tossing and turning and muttering under his breath. In their sleep they had drifted apart, leaving a gap between them, so she scooted herself closer and wrapped her arm around him, spooning him from behind. Responding to her touch, slowly he settled, lying quietly but still murmuring under his breath. Most of what he said she didn't catch, but two words, although said in a whisper, still stood out.

_"Bad Wolf."_

She froze.

He was dreaming about Bad Wolf?

Rose had had little glimpses in her own dreams about her time as Bad Wolf, half-remembered memories that seeped into her dreams and nightmares from her unconscious mind, but she had no idea that he dreamed about it as well.

But then the Doctor had given up a life to save her when being Bad Wolf was killing her, she reminded herself. Why would it be so strange that he'd occasionally dream about it, too?

She squeezed him tight. In response, without waking he rolled over and pulled her into his arms.

And she snuggled closer and tried to ignore her fear that something was coming soon.

~oOo~

_The Doctor slowly wandered around the console, almost absentmindedly flicking the occasional switch as he went. He couldn't avoid it any longer, he knew that, yet once he materialized he knew he'd be setting in motion the events that would undoubtedly lead to his death. Maybe he'd regenerate, maybe he wouldn't, but this him, this particular version of the Doctor that he was, with his pinstriped suits and Janis Joplin coat and trainers, would be gone. _

_He hadn't been this Doctor for long, only a few years really. For a species that could live hundreds, sometimes even thousands of years in one incarnation, that was just the blink of an eye. In fact, the only incarnation that had been shorter was his last one. _

_And Rose had loved that him, too. _

_His hearts squeezed painfully as he thought of her. He wondered if she would have loved the next him as well. Probably. She was incredible. Simply fantastic. He'd had companions who had stayed with him over a regeneration, but they had been friends, not… more. For her to make the leap of loving him from one incarnation to the next… that was unprecedented. Even Time Lords rarely could maintain a relationship like that through a regeneration. _

_But she had managed to make the transition of loving him through both a regeneration and a meta-crisis. _

_But she'd never meet the next him, he reminded himself, so he'd never know if she would have been able to cope with loving yet another version of him. Assuming of course that there would be another version of him, and that this one wasn't the end of the line._

_Knowing that it all was ending, he wanted to go back and see her. He would love to see all of them really, all his friends, all his previous companions, but the one person he wanted to see more than anyone was her. But of all of them, she was the one person he couldn't see. Seeing her would involve crossing his own timeline and risking paradoxes, and he just couldn't do that._

_He looked down at the console and found himself standing in front of the materialization controls. He couldn't put this off any longer. He reached down and grabbed the lever and the TARDIS began to materialize with its familiar metal-on-metal groaning. It stopped with a loud thud._

"_It's time," he whispered. He took a deep breath, adjusted his hat and reached in his pocket for his sunglasses. And then, after plastering on a false smile, he walked out of the TARDIS onto the planet of the Ood._


	4. Chapter 3

**a/n: _Rose's Theme_ was written by Murray Gold.**

* * *

**Chapter Three**

After a fitful night's sleep, early the next morning the Doctor awoke, the tendrils of a half-remembered dream trying to suck him back into unconsciousness. Snow. He had been dreaming about snow, he thought blearily. The dream's details were elusive, right on the edge of awareness, and he scanned his memory trying to recapture them. They seemed important somehow, important in a way a dream's details shouldn't be.

He had been on a planet, a snowy, frozen world. Despite the warmth of the room, despite being buried under a duvet, despite Rose half-wrapped around him, he shivered from the cold.

Extricating himself out from under Rose, he got up out of bed and absently massaged his aching arm as details of the dream forced themselves into his mind. He had just arrived there… but not him. Other him. And in front of him stood Ood Sigma. A dream… but not a dream, he realized.

_He_ was on the planet of the Ood.

It was beginning. Or ending, depending on how you wanted to look at it. Rubbing his face with his hands, he tried to fully wake up and end the telepathic contact that linked him to his Time Lord self. Whatever was happening in the other universe was the other him's path, not his own.

He quietly showered and dressed a dark blue suit. It was one of his favorites, similar to the one from the TARDIS, blue with burgundy pin striping, but it was a deeper blue than the other. He paired it with a collared shirt, again pinstriped but burgundy with blue rather than the reverse, and his burgundy Henley and red trainers. Finally he slipped his hand in the pocket of the suit he had worn the previous night, withdrew the velvet ring box, and stared it thoughtfully for a moment. Then he grinned. He tossed it up in the air and neatly caught it in one hand before shoving it in his trouser pocket. Then with a quick check in the mirror to determine he was ready for the day, he grabbed his anorak and headed outside, snagging a banana and a raisin bagel on the way.

It was still fully dark as he made his way through the woods to the baby TARDIS. Well, not such a baby anymore. More like a rebellious teen. At least with him. With Rose she was perfectly well behaved, completely in sync, and he wondered whether that was because of the energy Rose had transferred to her when she had first started growing, because the remaining traces of the Time Vortex in Rose resonated with her, or because of Rose herself. Perhaps all three.

Thinking of the Time Vortex only brought back thoughts of Bad Wolf. If _he_ had arrived on the Ood homeworld that must mean whatever was going to happen to him was soon.

And that certainly meant the return of Bad Wolf soon as well.

A wave of anxiety hit. When he had first seen the references to Bad Wolf, he had been worried about the implications for him, but now he was worried about the implications for her. She had given so much of her energy, so much of what he now realized was Time Vortex as well as artron, to the TARDIS as she was developing that Rose's own reserves had dwindled to almost infinitesimal levels. Not to mention using that power to fight off the Kern attack. That expenditure had left her so weak she had stopped breathing. If she tried to access it again, who knew what would happen?

Then there was always the possibility that she would try to look in the Heart of the TARDIS again, and with her close relationship to this TARDIS, the TARDIS might cooperate. It had almost killed her last time, and it had killed the incarnation of him that had taken it out of her. Although he would do it again in a heartbeat, he wasn't sure that as a part human/part Time Lord meta-crisis he'd even be able to do it. And even if he could, it would certainly kill him.

He was so lost in his thoughts that he arrived at the TARDIS before he had realized it. He let himself through the door to enter the console room. Its warm coral glowed and brightened in greeting, and despite his worries he smiled. He patted the wall before pulling off his coat and throwing it on the crook of a strut.

"So, what do you think?" he said aloud. "Do I try to keep all of this from her until it's all over for him? That would mean I'd have to keep her away from you, too, and our little surprise would have to be postponed." For a moment, the walls and Time Rotor dimmed, something he interpreted as her disagreeing with him. He sighed. "Yeah. Probably can't prevent what's going to happen anyway."

He slipped a hand into his pocket and pulled out the ring box. He flipped it open. The blue-green light from the Time Rotor caught it and the stone seemed to glow. He grinned. Regardless what was going to happen, this was Christmas Eve, the day he planned to propose. "But how?" he asked.

The overhead lights dimmed. At the same time, the lights in the corridor leading away from the console room brightened. With a quirk of one eyebrow, the Doctor left the room.

The young TARDIS wasn't very large yet; she only had a handful of rooms, and all absolutely essential: the console room, two engine rooms, the galley, a bedroom and en suite, and an infirmary. But the room she led the Doctor to was none of those.

"A new room, eh?" he said with a quick glance at the ceiling. "Okay, let's take a look." He pushed open the door. When he saw what was inside he slowly grinned. "Oh, you are a romantic, you are. A little over the top, but full marks for style. You really think I should do it this way?"

The lights brightened again, and the Doctor nodded decisively. This is how he would do it. "Well, no one ever said I did things half way, and I suppose now's not the time to start."

~oOo~

Rose woke up to the smells of bacon, eggs, and coffee. "Wha…" She yawned widely, covering her mouth with the back of her hand. "He cooked?" That was such a rarity it was definitely worth getting up for no matter how tired she was, so she threw on a dressing gown and headed down to the kitchen.

If breakfast smelled good upstairs, that was nothing compared to how it smelled in the kitchen itself. In addition to the bacon and eggs, there were sausages, beans, tomatoes, and mushrooms. There was fresh fruit on the table, bread toasting in the toaster and a pot of coffee on.

At the table, the Doctor was putting the finishing touches on a serving tray, complete with a bud vase containing a single pink and yellow rose in full bloom. She stared in amazement.

"Oh, you spoiled the surprise," he complained good-naturedly. "This was supposed to be breakfast in bed."

"If I didn't see it for myself I wouldn't have believed it," she said. "You cooked a full English breakfast?" She walked to the cooker and lifted lids, inhaling deeply the aromas of sizzling sausages, sautéed mushrooms, and simmering beans. Her stomach growled. "Looks like you cooked enough for an army."

"Nope, just us," he told her. He began taking items off the tray, and then stopped. "Even though you're up, do you want breakfast in bed?"

"Nah, let's have it right here." She snagged a piece of bacon from a platter and blew on it to cool it as she went to join him at the table. Nibbling on the bacon with one hand, she helped him set the table with the other. "You really went all out," she said in amazement. She traced one soft, pink-edged petal of the rose with her fingertip.

"Yes, well, it's just," he stammered. "Well, I just… I don't exactly have the best history with Christmas, and I wanted to do this one right."

"Well, so far so good." She grinned at him, and he grinned back.

After a few moments of grinning at each other like idiots, he turned to fill their plates. Meanwhile she poured their coffee and added cream and sugar, a lot of sugar, to the Doctor's cup and less to her own. "Where'd you get all this stuff anyway?" she asked.

"Tesco's," he replied.

"Tesco's?" she asked incredulously. "You went shopping? At Tesco's? Without even being asked?" He shrugged and she shook her head at the uncharacteristic behavior. Just when she thought she had him figured out, he surprised her. She picked up her mug of coffee and took a sip. "So when did you have time to do all that?"

"This morning," he said. "After all, it's half eleven and I got up at five."

Her eyes widened. "Half eleven? It's half eleven already?" She glanced at the clock on the wall. "We've got to get going," she said. She hurriedly set down her mug and started to get up, and he motioned for her to sit back down again.

"We've got plenty of time," he told her. He set their plates on the table and sat down across from her. "Even allowing for packing, traffic, and questionable weather, we should still get there before tea."

She was sure he was wrong, but she didn't want to argue the point. Instead, she took a bite of light, fluffy scrambled eggs. They were flawlessly seasoned and cooked to perfection. "Mmm, this is gorgeous," she said in surprise. "And now that I know you can cook like this, I'm gonna have to have you do all the cooking."

"Oh." He stared at her, stricken, and then winced. "You seem to have discovered a flaw in this plan," he said.

Her tongue touched her teeth as she gave him a wide grin. "Yep," she said.

~oOo~

Later, Rose zipped her suitcase closed and hefted it off the bed. The Doctor's, which had been on their bed, was nowhere to be seen. Neither were the bag of wrapped presents for her family that had been on the floor of their room.

_He must have already taken them downstairs_, she told herself.

As she hauled her own luggage down the stairs, she called out to him. "Doctor, we've got to get going. Do you have the car packed?" When she didn't receive an answer, she called again. "Doctor? Did you put the luggage in the car?"

Again there was no answer. _He's probably gotten distracted_, she thought. _Genius intelligence, attention span of a five-year-old_.

With a sigh, she went into the kitchen. Empty. As was the living room in the front of the house.

But the good news was that his luggage wasn't there either. Nor were the presents they had purchased for her family. Maybe he had already put them in his car. And before she had even asked. Hoping for that minor miracle, she headed out to the car, grabbing her heavy, wool-lined leather coat on the way.

His car was the old Mondeo that she had purchased when on the run months earlier. It had been in bad condition when she bought it, and it still looked like a wreck; it had peeling paint, large spots of rust, and several dents that indicated previous accidents. Under the bonnet, however, was a completely rebuilt engine, courtesy of the Doctor and with a little help from alien tech scavenged from Torchwood. He had told her that he had completely rebuilt an old yellow roadster in his third life. Based on the work he had done on the Mondeo, it looked like he hadn't been stretching the truth.

He had worked on the engine when the TARDIS needed a break from his tinkering. He was planning on fixing the exterior as well, but as always the TARDIS took precedence. As she should.

Rose looked in the boot of the Mondeo. No luggage. Nor was there anything in the back seat. He couldn't want to take the Mini Cooper, she thought. It was fine for a trip into work, but for the drive to London it was far too cramped, particularly for him, and the boot was too small for some of the presents they were bringing.

She decided to check anyway. Again, no luggage, not in the back seat and not in the miniscule boot.

So no sign of luggage and no sign of him. Hmmm.

She looked around the yard and spotted the low barn which had been converted into a workshop/laboratory for him. Maybe he was in there. It hadn't occurred to her that he could be there; he knew they had to leave in order to get to London before dark, and even if he was in there, it made no sense for him to bring their things into his workshop as well. But he often did the unexpected, and his brand of logic was often a quarter turn off from the rest of the planet.

But he wasn't there either. Since the cars were here, that only left one place he could be.

The TARDIS.

But this was _not_ a good time to work on the TARDIS. They really had to get going.

Rose tried to control her frustration. Even though his relationship with her mother was better than it had ever been, and far, far better than when they had met, she knew the Doctor wasn't looking forward to spending extended time with her family. Christmas was one thing. He had enjoyed the Christmas they had spent together on the Powell Estate, and she knew he was looking forward to spending this one with her family as well. And the Vitex New Year's Eve bash, too.

It was just the week in between, a week with her mother… and without the TARDIS.

Even being part human, and living in a more domestic situation than he ever had, she knew her mother was just too domestic for him, and he wouldn't even have the TARDIS to escape to when it all got to be too much.

But after this morning, with the domesticity of him cooking a full English breakfast, she had been sure he was okay with this. Evidently not.

She turned and began to head across the garden to the path that led to the TARDIS. And then stopped. And slowly turned around.

There was a tree next to the house.

There was a_ tree_ next to the _house_.

There was a tree, a tall English oak, near the back steps of the house. It was in a place where a tree had never been before, and even from where she stood she could see the familiar heart carved into the trunk.

He had moved the TARDIS.

Rose was torn between excitement and elation that the TARDIS was ready for flight and fury that one, he hadn't told her; two, he had risked moving the TARDIS, and hence risked being off in time, again without telling her; and three, she hadn't been able to go on her first flight.

Excitement won out.

She ran to the door and flung it open.

The Doctor was leaning against the console waiting for her with arms and ankles crossed and his mouth twisted into a smug smile. But underneath the smirk she could see pride written all over his face. Oh, not in himself, but in the TARDIS.

Rose clasped her hands behind her back and bit her lower lip, putting on an air of disapproval. "So," she said, raising her eyebrows, "you decided to fly her without me." The smirk left his face, only to be replaced by worry. "You risked arriving too late, maybe even years too late, and you didn't even tell me she was ready to fly."

He looked stricken. "No, no, no," he said quickly. "I wouldn't do that. It was just a sideways hop, moving her only in space rather than time. We didn't even enter the Vortex. I'm not even sure she can enter the Vortex yet. And as far as the other, well, it was supposed to be a surprise. Wouldn't be much of a surprise if I told you in advance, now, would it?" The last part came out pleadingly, and she decided to take pity on him. It was Christmas Eve, after all.

"It is a great surprise," she admitted, giggling, and he sighed in relief.

She ran the short distance across the room and he caught her in his arms, hugging her tightly and lifting her a foot off the floor.

"Told you we had plenty of time," he said. "Now it's just a short hop to your mum's rather than a three hour drive."

"She's gonna want us to visit more," she warned.

"Oh," he said as he set her down. He grimaced. "I hadn't thought of that."

She chuckled at his reaction. "So," she said, "Should we get my stuff and get going?"

"Um, we do have plenty of time," he said. He caught her hand in his. "I want to show you something first. Well, not so much show as… Well, it's more like… give you part of your Christmas present."

"Alright," she said slowly, and he grinned.

The Doctor led her from the room and to a door at the end of the short hall. Rose glanced at him and he nodded at her to enter. In front of her was a small ballroom complete with a glossy hardwood floor and a crystal chandelier. It was otherwise empty save for a black, baby grand piano in the center of the room. She looked at him, puzzled.

"I don't understand," she said. "I don't play."

"But I do," he told her. He pulled her over to the piano and sat down, patting the bench beside him. When she sat down, he began to play.

The music started soft and slow, just a few quiet notes beginning a plaintive melody, but as he continued to play harmony interwove with melody, and as the music swelled to fill the room just for one moment Rose could have sworn she heard singing. It was the most beautiful music she had ever heard, and yet somehow it was heartbreaking at the same time.

When he finished they both sat silently for a few moments.

"That was… incredible," she said eventually. "What's it called?"

"_Rose's Theme_," he told her, "as it was intended to be part of a larger piece that was never finished."

"It's beautiful," she said. "Who wrote it?"

"I did," he said without looking at her.

Rose was dumbstruck. "You wrote it… for me?" she asked when she was finally able to speak again.

The Doctor nodded. "After, well, after saying goodbye to you. When I wrote it, I never thought you'd get a chance to hear it."

When he had finished playing he had dropped his hands into his lap, and now she grabbed one and squeezed it. "But I have now," she said. "What a wonderful present. Thank you so much."

He turned to her and smiled as he rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb. With the other hand he began to reach into his pocket. "Rose Tyler…" he began.

And then he pulled away from her as he cried out in agony. He huddled over, cradling his right hand and arm, staring unseeing in front of him.

"Doctor, Doctor, what is it?" Rose asked desperately. "What's wrong?"

He turned toward her, his face contorted in pain. "No, it's not possible. That man is dead."


	5. Chapter 4

**a/n: This is a slightly shorter chapter, but it ends at a good stopping point. All recognizable dialogue comes from the episode The End of Time.**

* * *

**Chapter Four**

The Doctor gasped for air as pain continued to spread from his right hand and arm, threatening to take over his body.

"Doctor, Doctor, what's going on? Are you alright?"

Rose's voice seemed to come from a long distance, and for a brief moment he had the unusual experience of seeing three layers of reality, that of Rose in front of him, the snow cave of the Ood that his other self was sitting in, and the visions being projected by the Ood in the mind of the other. He could see Wilf's face float in front of him, superimposed over the TARDIS's small ballroom, while he heard the Master laugh maniacally.

_"Wilfred. Is he all right? What about Donna, is she safe?"_ he asked. But not him. Other him. But the link between them was so strong it felt almost as if he had said it himself.

Worried about Donna, he tried to concentrate on what was going on in the parallel universe. The ballroom in the TARDIS faded into the background while snippets of speech, the voices of the Ood Elder and his other self, echoed in his ears.

_"You should not have delayed, for the lines of convergence are being drawn across the Earth…"_

_"The Master, he's a Time Lord, like me… I held him in my arms. I burnt his body. The Master is dead."_

_"And yet, you did not see."_

"Doctor, please, please answer me."

He could hear fear in Rose's voice, and he realized that she had been asking him if he was okay.

He was still anxious to find out what was going on so the Doctor tamped down the telepathic connection between himself and his full Time Lord counterpart without entirely breaking the link. As he took deep, slow breaths, the pain began to fade, and the events surrounding the other Doctor faded into the background.

"I'm all right," he said to her even as a translucent vision of a woman picking up the Master's signet ring floated in front of him and he heard more snatches of the conversation through the link.

_"Part of him survived. I have to go!" his counterpart said._

_"…a shadow is falling over creation," the Elder continued. "Something vast is stirring in the dark…time is bleeding. Shapes of things once lost are moving through the veil…The darkness heralds only one thing."_

_"The end of time itself."_

And then felt another surge of excruciating pain along with a wave of sheer terror as the link flared to life again.

~oOo~

_At the words of the Ood, the Doctor tore out of the ice cave. He ran flat out across the frozen landscape, cursing the fact that the TARDIS was parked so far away from the Ood city and fighting the sheer terror that was threatening to overtake him. With their group mind, the Ood could see timelines and possibilities far better than he could. In fact, they were almost equal to the Time Lords at their height, so if they said they foresaw the end of time, the end of time was in front of them._

_And somehow the Master was involved. _

_As he neared the TARDIS he pulled the small remote key out of his pocket and unlocked the door. The light on the roof flashed, and the door automatically opened. Without slowing, he ran into the console room, trusting the TARDIS to close the door behind him. He immediately started setting the controls for the last place he had seen the Master._

_Twenty-first century Earth._

~oOo~

"Doctor, Doctor, what's going on?" Rose, who had managed to be coolheaded in the face of the worst countless universes could throw at her, was becoming more and more desperate. The Doctor was clearly in agony, bent over, holding his arm tightly against his chest. She knew exactly what was going on; she had seen what would happen to him when he experienced a strong telepathic link to the other Doctor. His hand, and occasionally his arm, would ache, even hurt. But she had never seen it cause such severe pain.

She could see the moment the Doctor managed to shut down the link between himself and his other self. It took every ounce of his strength; it left him pale and panting hard from exhaustion. She wrapped her arm around his shoulder, and he leaned against her heavily, as if he didn't have the energy to hold himself up.

After he had recovered somewhat, she turned to him and looked in his eyes.

"Are you alright?" she asked. He nodded, breathing deeply and slowly.

"Yeah," he said quietly.

"What was that? What happened?"

He looked away from her, evasively she thought, and she felt a flash of anger and disbelief. She glared at him.

"Oh, don't you dare," she said sharply. "Don't you dare. You can't go through something like that and then pretend nothing happened."

Gritting his teeth, he leaned forward and rested an elbow on the piano, just above the keys. Then he began to rub his forehead and temple. When he didn't look like he was going to respond to her, she continued. "I know you were having some sort of telepathic contact with him. Don't bother trying to deny it. You've got to tell me what's going on."

With a sigh of inevitability, he nodded. "I don't know where to start," he told her.

"Start at the beginning," she said.

~oOo~

_As soon as the TARDIS landed on Earth, the Doctor ran out the door only to see the burned out ruins of Broadfell Prison. Any hopes he had of trying to prevent the events from occurring were immediately dashed. He had arrived too late. _

_As he stared at the ruins of the once imposing building in front of him, he felt an unmistakable tickle of a Time Lord consciousness in the back of his brain. Undoubtedly he was sensing the Master, he thought. _

_He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. Yes. There was a trace of his scent in the air. But it was just barely a trace. He'd have missed it if he hadn't been looking for it._

_The Master had been here. But he wasn't here anymore. _

_The Doctor closed his eyes and took another deep breath. His nostrils flared as he tried to track the direction of the Master's scent. Some of his other incarnations had had far better senses of smell than he did, but if he concentrated, he could smell him, perhaps three or four miles east of here. _

_It boggled the mind that somehow the Master was still alive, or alive again possibly. Part of him couldn't believe he was in this position again, tracking the Master to try and stop him from doing something catastrophic. After the Year That Never Was, he had been certain he'd never have to do it again. But how many times had he thought the Master was dead only to be proven wrong? _

_And was it perverse of him to be glad he wasn't dead, that despite all the Master had done in the past, despite the risk to the universe the Master posed, he was glad he wasn't alone, that he was glad he wasn't the only Time Lord anymore?_

~oOo~

"After all, how many times had the Master cheated death in the past? Over the centuries, I've lost count," the Doctor told Rose. "After he ran through his regenerations in record time, he began stealing bodies, burning through them even faster than his regenerations."

After she had pressed him to tell her what was going on, he had suggested they return to the house, and they were now sitting on the sofa in the living room. Half empty mugs of tea, as well as an empty plate that originally had been full of biscuits, sat on the low table in front of them. He had been too exhausted from his ordeal and in no condition to talk, so Rose had done the thing that generations of British women had done for centuries during a crisis. She made tea. After all, if it could help him after a difficult regeneration, it might help with this. Or at least couldn't hurt. And the tea and biscuits had to have helped since he seemed so much better than he had in the TARDIS.

"During the Time War," he continued, "the High Council recalled all the Time Lords back to fight, and when it wasn't enough they used the Matrix and Looming technology to bring back Time Lords who were dead. One of them was the Master. In exchange for fighting in the War, they offered him an entire new cycle of regenerations. But then he ran and hid himself as a human, which is why I didn't know he was still alive."

"And then you, Jack and Martha found him," Rose said. She knew what had happened next. One late night, after a particularly bad nightmare, he had told her the story of finding the Master at the end of the universe, of being imprisoned with Jack and them being tortured for a year, of Martha walking the Earth, and of reversing time so that the year had never existed for anyone other than those in the center of the storm.

"After Lucy shot him and he refused to regenerate," he said, "I was convinced he was dead. Finally and permanently. I'd held him in my arms as he died, I'd built a funeral pyre and burned his body myself. And I was sure that was the end. Few things are more final than cremation.

"But I was wrong. Part of him survived. A trace of him survived on the signet ring he always wore."

"And that's the part I don't understand," Rose said. "How could he have been brought back from that?"

"Time Lord," he said. "Even a single cell is enough to regenerate a Time Lord body under the right conditions."

"But still…"

He raised an eyebrow at her. She stared at him, puzzled, and then the penny dropped.

"But that's not what happened to you. This is different."

"If by different you mean that somehow I managed to get a bit of Donna's DNA and a separate, partially human body, yeah, this is different. In my case, there was my hand, regeneration energy and a split of consciousness, and in his, there was a trace of his genetic material. Whoever brought him back would have needed his biometrical signature as well, which they could have obtained from his wife. But neither would have been possible if we weren't Time Lords."

Rose sat back and ran a hand through her hair as she tried to take it all in. After a few moments she said, "There's still one thing I don't understand."

He snorted. "Only one?"

"You've been having telepathic contact with him," she said, ignoring his comment. "But what I don't understand is why it hurt so much this time."

"I always feel something," he said. "Since Time Lords are primarily touch telepaths, I believe it's as a result of the fully Time Lord nerve endings in my hand acting like a receiver across the Void and that since I'm only part Time Lord, I'm not as strong a telepath as I used to be. Between the Void and the fact that my nerves have to work harder than they used to, it usually makes my hand ache."

"What you were feeling was a whole lot more than a hand ache," she said pointedly. "So what makes it different this time?"

He didn't answer immediately as for just an instant he felt a tickling in the back of his mind and a corresponding sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. He had so wanted to avoid this conversation, and this part in particular, but how could he ever have believed he could keep this from her? He took a deep breath and chose his words as carefully as possible.

"For a Time Lord, he's a fairly strong telepath. Because of it, and since we used to be the same person and have the same brainwave patterns, he can contact me, even across the Void. When he's controlling the link, all I usually feel is a tingle or a bit of an ache.

"But sometimes he's not controlling it. Sometimes when he's angry or… upset… he's broadcasting his emotions so strongly that I feel it even when he's not trying to contact me."

"And the more upset he is, the more you feel it?" she asked. Although he knew she had been trying to keep her voice even throughout the conversation, it still held a tinge of fear and her worry was written all over her face. He nodded.

"So he's scared," she said, biting her lip. "Really, really scared."

"Yeah," he admitted quietly.

~oOo~

_From his position on the edge of a cliff, the Doctor scanned the surrounding area. Below him was an abandoned warehouse, the type of building often used by squatters and other people living rough. The nearby car park and lot connected to the structure were filled with derelict equipment and girders, weeds, rubbish, and the occasional oil drum. Many of the last were used as __braziers by the homeless. Gulls flew overhead, their caws providing the only sound in the otherwise silent landscape._

_He sniffed the air. Mixed in with the sharp odor of burning rubbish and the incongruous odor of a food wagon, he caught a trace of the Master's scent on the breeze. The Master was here, he was certain of it. The question was where._

_The sound of drumming, of four beats being sounded on an old metal oil drum, broke the silence and caused the birds to scatter. There was no question in his mind it was the Master, and that the Master knew he was here as well. He was using the drumming to call him to himself. The drumming repeated over and over, the rhythm of the beating hearts of a Time Lord. As the tempo increased, his own hearts pounded in time with the beat, and he was gripped with a fresh wave of anxiety._

_It is returning through the dark, and then he will knock four times. That had been part of the prophecy. He will knock four times. Could that part of it have been referring to the Master?_

_He ran towards the sound. When it stopped, he stopped as well and surveyed the area once again. He spotted the Master against the skyline and took off after him._

~oOo~

"This was what you were talking about before, isn't it?" Rose said. "That business about his song ending you told me about. He's scared he's going to die."

"He'll be fine," the Doctor told her. He was lying through his teeth, and he suspected she knew it. "He's had centuries of experience dealing with the Master, and he saves the universe every day. Twice on Sundays."

She sighed loudly, a forceful huff of frustration. "You forget, Doctor, that you aren't indestructible," she said. "Neither of you. One of the first things I did when I met you was save your life, and that I saw you, dead without regenerating, in that bubble universe that had been created around Donna. If it wasn't for her, you'd be dead and not sitting here drinking tea. And now he's all alone out there."

"I've traveled alone before," he told her.

"But not like this," she countered. "Not with half of you there and half of you here."

He couldn't deny that. As a result of the meta-crisis, they were both a little unstable. He had Rose to help stabilize him; his Time Lord self had no one. In fact, although it was not the cause, that instability had been a contributing factor to the disaster on Mars. How it would affect him now was anybody's guess.

As Rose continued to argue, he began to feel a familiar ache in his hand and wrist, accompanied this time by a deep sense of sorrow. He gritted his teeth and looked away, trying to hide the fact that he was massaging his hand. Voices that he could hear only in his mind began to filter across the Void.

_"I'm going to die."_

_"Well, so am I, one day."_

That was Wilf, Donna's grandfather, the Doctor realized. Wilf was with him.

_"But I was told he will knock four times. That was the prophecy. Knock four times, and then…"_

_"Yeah, but I thought," Wilf said. "When I saw you before, you said your people could change, like, your whole body. _

_"I can still die. If I'm killed before regeneration, then I'm dead. Even then, even if I change, it feels like dying. Everything I am dies. Some new man goes sauntering away, and I'm dead."_

_"Who have you got now?"_

_"No one. Travelling alone. I thought it was better. But I did some things. It went wrong. I need_…"

"Someone to stop me," the Doctor finished at a whisper. Tears sprang to his eyes, and not from the pain in his hand. "I need someone to stop me."


	6. Chapter 5

**a/n: Recognizable dialogue from and spoilers for the episode _The End of Time_.**

* * *

**Chapter Five**

"What did you say?" Rose asked.

The Doctor didn't answer, and to be honest she really hadn't expected him to. She knew he had been talking to himself, and whatever he had said hadn't been meant for her ears.

Although he was trying to hide it, he was massaging his hand again, so instead of pressing him, she searched his face. He was pale and drawn; in fact, he looked absolutely exhausted. He was clearly trying to hide pain behind a mask of calm, and his eyes were suspiciously moist. She reached across his lap and took his hand, as much to feel the temperature of it as to comfort him. Although it was not hot, it was warm, too warm for him, even warmer than her own. She knew it was one of the signs of the telepathic contact between the two Doctors.

"What is it?" she asked gently. "What's going on?"

He glanced away and swallowed hard before taking a deep, slow breath to compose himself. "It's nothing," he said. "It's just… for just an instant I saw Donna."

"Donna? Is she… is she alright?" she asked.

His mouth twisted into a small smile. "Oh, she's fine."

"Then why… Is he alright?"

"He's fine, too," he told her, too quickly to be telling the truth, but she set that aside for the moment.

"But you're not," she said.

"I'm fine, Rose." He stood up, swaying slightly with the movement. As he straightened his jacket he glanced out the window. Although it was half four, it was already black as pitch outside. "We've got to get going. We're already late for tea. I don't fancy my first slap in this body being on Christmas Eve."

"You're not in any condition to go anywhere," she said. "We'll have tea here and then when you feel better we'll get going."

He nodded, for once not denying how he felt, and sank back down on the sofa while she headed into the kitchen. Before leaving the room, she glanced back at him. He had stretched out on the sofa and was already sound asleep.

She pulled her mobile out of her pocket. Her mother answered on the first ring.

"Mum, we're gonna be a little later than I thought," she said quietly.

~oOo~

_Back outside the abandoned warehouse where he had seen the Master earlier, the Doctor picked his way through rubbish and stones, hoping to literally sniff the Master out. Despite having superior eyesight to humans (he didn't really need the glasses he occasionally wore), he was unlikely to spot him as night had fallen._

_Knowing how volatile the other man was, he approached him cautiously, but as soon as the Master realized he was there, he threw energy bursts at him. The first two missed, starting fires behind him, but the third hit him squarely in the chest. As he fell to his knees, the Master caught him._

The Doctor shifted in his sleep. "Stop it," he muttered.

_"I've been told something is returning."_

_"And here I am," the Master said grandly._

_"No, something more."_

_"… the noise. The noise in my head, Doctor. One, two, three, four… Every minute, every second, every beat of my hearts, there it is, calling to me…Listen." _

"What!"

"Doctor," a voice said to him as if from a long distance away.

"What? What was that?"

"Doctor!" the voice urgently repeated.

The Doctor's eyes flew open. In the darkened room, Rose was kneeling on the floor next to him. She was biting her lip, and her eyes were wide with concern.

He sat up abruptly. "Rose, did you hear that?" he asked. "What was that?"

She shook her head. "I didn't hear anything, just you talking in your sleep. You seemed upset so I woke you."

Rubbing his temples, he closed his eyes tightly for a moment. "There was… there was a drumming. Four beats, repeating over and over." He turned and looked at her. "You didn't hear it?" She shook her head. "I must have been dreaming," he said. He furrowed his brow, trying to remember. "No, I lost it. What time is it?"

"Late," she told him.

"Oh, sorry," he said. "I didn't mean to sleep so long. We're supposed to be at your mother's for tea."

"It's too late," she said. "We'll go in the morning, get there in plenty of time for turkey."

"I'm so sorry," he said again.

"It's alright," she replied. "You needed the sleep. Are you hungry?"

He shook his head and yawned, for once covering his mouth with the back of his hand. "Nah. Actually I'm still a bit tired."

"Then let's head up to bed, yeah?"

He slowly grinned. "That's a brilliant idea," he told her. "Will you let me unwrap my present?" She was about to tell him that his present wasn't even there, it was at the mansion, when she realized he was leering at her.

She raised her eyebrows. "I thought you were tired."

"Oh, Rose Tyler, I am never _that_ tired," he told her.

She slowly smiled before she took his hand and led him upstairs.

~oOo~

Late the next morning the Doctor awoke to bright sunlight hitting him full in the face. He groaned and rubbed his face vigorously, trying to force himself awake.

He had been so deeply asleep he felt groggy, almost drugged. His dreams had been filled with disjointed images: Wilf and Sylvia, some sort of prickly green alien, a giant gate. And the Master. The Master everywhere.

As the dream images returned to the forefront of his mind, he realized he still had a tenuous telepathic connection to the other Doctor, one that was threatening to suck him in. He shook head vigorously while he broke free of the link.

With a start, the Doctor realized Rose wasn't there. He was slightly disappointed in that. He had been hoping for a little togetherness time before they got up for the day. Not bothering to stifle an enormous yawn, he got up and stretched before he pulled on his dressing gown and headed downstairs.

Rose was sprawled out on the sofa, already dressed and flipping through the channels on the television. When she saw him, she grinned and turned off the telly.

"Merry Christmas," she said brightly.

"Merry Christmas," he said, grinning back. He sat down next to her and pulled her in for a long snog. When they broke apart for air, he leaned back against the back of the sofa and pulled her with him.

"So what's on?" he asked.

"President's Christmas address," she told him. "Every channel. It's the same thing every year, have a wonderful Christmas, blessings for the New Year, but this time it's John Frobisher instead of Harriet Jones."

"'Meet the new boss, same as the old boss'," he quoted.

Rose laughed. "Too right there." She snuggled closer to him, burying her nose in his neck, and he tightened the arm he had around her shoulders. "So how are you feeling this morning?" she asked.

"Absolutely fine," he told her. "Right as rain. Fit as a fiddle."

"And…" she asked, meaning the other Doctor, but not sure exactly how to ask.

"So far, so good," he said. She sighed in relief.

"We really should get going if we're going to get there by dinner," she said.

He grunted noncommittally.

"Mum's expecting us," she reminded him. "And I can't even give you my present because it's at the mansion."

"Oh, I thought last night was my present."

She poked him playfully.

"I don't need a present, Rose," he told her. "I have the best present in the world right here."

"Mmm, me too," she replied. She pushed herself up enough to kiss his jaw, and then she giggled. "Prickly. Tickles a bit. Why don't you go and get ready while I get our breakfast together."

"Alright," he said, and then after one more quick kiss he headed back upstairs.

~oOo~

Within minutes, he entered the kitchen, showered, shaved and dressed in one of his blue pinstriped suits.

Rose had placed toast and jam on the table along with fresh coffee. "Sorry it's not a full English like you made," she apologized.

"This is fine," he said. He sat down, grabbed a jar of marmalade and twisted the lid open.

"Oi," she scolded as he shoved a couple of fingers deep into the open jar. "There's a spoon right there."

"Tastes better this way," he said with a sniff. He placed his fingers in his mouth and sucked the marmalade off. When he noticed her still watching him disapprovingly, he pulled them out of his mouth and began to lick them off from knuckle to tip, slowly and deliberately.

"We don't have time for that," she said.

"What?" he said innocently. "Me cleaning my fingers?" He stuck them back in the jar and sucked them off again, this time with a quiet moan. "Mmm. Delicious." After sticking his fingers in the marmalade a third time, he offered them to her. "Care for a lick?"

She rolled her eyes. "Maybe later."

"Your loss," he said and sucked his fingers clean again. "Mmm, you don't know what you're missing."

"We don't have time," she said firmly. She drained her mug and got up to wash it in the sink. Behind her, she heard something crash to the floor.

She turned quickly—and her heart leapt into her throat. The Doctor was sitting rigidly in his chair, jaw clenched, pain and fright written all over his face. On the floor, the jar of marmalade rolled across the room, coming to rest against the wall.

"Oh my God," she whispered and flew to him. "Doctor, what's happening?"

Without moving his head, he glanced at her and then closed his eyes tightly. After a moment, he relaxed, breathing heavily.

"What was that?" she asked. When he didn't answer, she continued. "That was him again, wasn't it? Something's happening to him, and you're feeling it. Can't you block it?"

The Doctor took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I just did," he told her.

"But you couldn't prevent it from happening in the first place," she said, her voice wavering slightly.

With her words, the Doctor began to feel a slight tickling in the back of his brain, just as he had the previous day in the TARDIS. They were approaching a cusp, a fork in the road, a tipping point that would determine how events would play out.

Something was coming.

"I thought this would happen less over time," she said. "You told me that as the two of you made different decisions, you'd grow further apart. Instead, you seem to be getting closer. Why would you be growing closer?"

"I dunno," he said thoughtfully. "We _should_ be growing apart. Just like parallel worlds diverge, we should be diverging as well."

"But our worlds aren't diverging, that's what you told us when UNIT was formed."

He stared at her in shock. "You're right. The entanglement is causing things to happen in parallel in our two universes. Sometimes mirror reflections, but parallel." He jumped up and began to pace. "But that shouldn't cause this. Or should it? Could the entanglement be causing the link to actually increase? No, not like this, not unless…" His voice trailed off, and he slowly turned to her. "I was wrong, or at least partially wrong. The entanglement may have begun with Gallifrey, but it's snowballing because of us. Him and me. We didn't start out parallel. We're the same person in two separate dimensions. And more than that. We're Time Lords, the same Time Lord, the same incarnation in fact."

"But you're not the same," Rose interjected. "You're part human."

He dismissed that with a wave of his hand. "A tiny bit of human DNA is negligible compared to this. With one of us in each universe, we're pulling, almost knitting the universes together."

"But if the universes are converging, and if his song is ending, what does that mean for you?" she asked quietly.

He paled, and his heart skipped a beat. The tingle in the back of his mind that was his Time Sense grew as another piece of the puzzle slid into place.

"And he's all alone so there's no one to help him, no one to help stop whatever is going on," she said.

At least that he could answer. "I don't think he's alone," he told her. "I think he's got Wilf with him."

"Wilf?" she asked, momentarily confused. "Who's… wait a minute, isn't that Donna's grandfather?"

"Yeah," he said. "I've been seeing his face. Much more than if he had just run into him. I think he's with him."

"Is that going to be enough?" she asked.

He winced as pain shot through his hand and arm again. He forced the link closed.

"This can't keep going on," she said when she saw him in pain again. "Isn't there anything we can do?"

He'd never been able to see his own future, and he couldn't see it now, but he knew this was it. Right here and right now. This was the turning point.

And he was the key, he could see that much. What he did here would determine what happened, possibly in both universes.

The real question, the question in the forefront of his mind was how could he protect Rose? What could he do to prevent Bad Wolf from coming back? Because he was sure if he didn't do something, she would.

And it suddenly occurred to him that there was something he could do.

"Yes," he said quietly. "I could try strengthening the link between him and me."

"What? You can't!" she protested. "You're in so much pain as it is…"

"If I do it right, if I control my end of the link rather than just reacting to his, I should be able to actually cut down my physical reaction to it."

"Even if you can, what good would it do?"

"If I was there, mentally, I could help stabilize him. Help him through this. Maybe if I were there he wouldn't die. Maybe his song wouldn't end."

"But…" she started, looking frightened. "But what if he dies anyway? What happens to you?"

"Before that happened I'd break the link. And if he regenerates, the link would break anyway since we'd no longer be the same incarnation." He pulled her to her feet and tilted her chin up. "I'll be fine, Rose. I can do this."

She searched his face and then finally nodded. "Okay," she said. "What do you need from me?"

"That's my girl," he said, smiling at her proudly. "Not much. I'm going to need to be someplace quiet, somewhere where I can lie down so I can concentrate. Probably our bedroom."

Taking her hand, he led the way and once there sat down on the bed. Meanwhile Rose drew the drapes and sat down next to him.

"Now what I'm going to try to do is put myself in a trance and create a light, temporary bond with him," he told her. "If I do it right, I should be able to give him a little moral support without him even knowing I'm there. With us both there, hopefully it will give him a little more stability."

"Why don't you want him to know you're there?" she asked. "Wouldn't it help him to know you're with him?"

"I don't want to be a distraction. Hopefully just my being there will allow him to draw on my reserves and give him a bit more stability, even if he doesn't know he's doing it."

"So…" she said, trying to hide her nervousness, "what do I do?"

He took her hand and squeezed it. "Just be there for me. Just knowing you're there will help." He paused for a moment, giving her a soft smile before continuing. "Now Rose, don't be alarmed at anything I might say, and even more important, don't try to bring me out of the trance. It's vital I not be disturbed. Not for anything short of a planetary invasion or the house burning down or something. If I pull away too quickly, it could divert his attention long enough to be catastrophic."

She nodded in understanding.

"Okay, all set." He leaned forward and gave her a long, lingering kiss. When they broke apart, he lay down on the bed. "Ready?"

"Ready," she replied.

"Wish me luck."

"Luck." She smiled at him.

He closed his eyes. As he put himself in a trance, his face screwed up in pain. A second later he relaxed and almost immediately began to mutter under his breath.

"No, no, no, no, no. The other way." He paused. "Not the stairs. Not the stairs." Another pause and then he said loudly, "Worst rescue ever!"

She chuckled quietly. It couldn't be all bad if he was being rescued.

_Still strapped to a wheelchair, the Doctor found himself being teleported onto a spaceship._

_"Now get me out of this thing!" he shouted._

_As the green, prickly Vinvocci released him, Wilf wandered over to the window. The Earth was clearly visible below them. "Oh, my goodness me," he said. "We're in space!"_

In the bedroom of the farmhouse, the Doctor fell silent.

"Oh, I hope you're alright," Rose whispered. "Both of you."

~oOo~

Rose sat curled up in a chair, nervously keeping watch as the hours passed. Periodically the Doctor would mutter something, but mostly he was silent and still and she hoped that was a good sign. As night fell, she dozed off, only to awaken at the sound of her mobile ringing. She jumped up and ran out into the hall, hoping the ringing hadn't disturbed the Doctor. As she answered, she closed the door behind her.

"I'm so sorry, Mum," she said quietly. "Something came up."

_Aboard the darkened, silent ship, as the sun began to rise over England in their universe, Wilf was sitting on a stair next to the Doctor as the Doctor repaired the heating. As they spoke, Wilf pulled his old service revolver out of his pocket. _

_"Listen, I, I want you to have this. I've kept it all this time, and I thought…" he said, offering the gun to the Doctor._

"No," the Doctor said softly_. _

_"But you said, you were told he will knock four times and then you die. Well, that's him, isn't it? The Master. That noise in his head? The Master is going to kill you." _

_"Yeah," the Doctor replied. _

_"Then kill him first," Wilf said. _

_"And that's how the Master started," the Doctor told him. "It's not like I'm an innocent. I've taken lives. I got worse. I got clever. Manipulated people into taking their own. Sometimes I think a Time Lord lives too long. I can't. I just can't."_

In the hall outside the bedroom of the farmhouse, Rose was still speaking to Jackie. "Yeah, I know I should have called…" she said into her mobile.

_Over the loudspeaker, the Master said, "A star fell from the sky… The star was a diamond. And the diamond is a Whitepoint."_

_"What's he on about?" Wilf asked. "What's he doing? Doctor, what does that mean?" _

"Gallifrey," the Doctor murmured. "The Time Lords are returning."

_And the Doctor grabbed the revolver and raced from the room._

Rose said, "Yes, I know it's Christmas, Mum."

_The Doctor ran about the bridge, making repairs as quickly as he could._

_"But you said your people were dead," Wilf said. "Past tense."_

_"Inside the Time War," the Doctor replied. "And the whole War was Timelocked. Like, sealed inside a bubble. It's not a bubble but just think of a bubble. Nothing can get in or get out of the Timelock. Don't you see? Nothing can get in or get out, except something that was already there."_

_"The signal," Wilf said. "Since he was a kid."_

_"If they can follow the signal," the Doctor told Wilf, "they can escape before they die." _

_"Well, then, big reunion. We'll have a party."_

_"There will be no party." _

_"But I've heard you talk about your people like they're wonderful."_

_"That's how I choose to remember them, the Time Lords of old," the Doctor replied. "But then they went to war. An endless war, and it changed them right to the core. You've seen my enemies, Wilf. The Time Lords are more dangerous than any of them."_

Rose sighed. "Yes, Mum. We're still on Earth…"

_The Doctor threw two levers forward, and the ship powered up._

_"But now they can see us," the female alien protested._

"Oh, yes!" the Doctor whispered.

_"This is my ship, and you're not moving it," the Vinvocci insisted. "Step away from the wheel." _

_"There's an old Earth saying, Captain," the Doctor said. "A phrase of great power and wisdom, and consolation to the soul in times of need."_

_"What's that, then?"_

"Allons-y!" the Doctor said loudly.

Rose turned her head towards the door. "Mum, I really have to go."

_"Lock the navigation," the Doctor said._

_"Onto what?" the alien asked in disbelief. _

"England. The Naismith mansion."

_"Fifty kliks and closing," the Vinvocci said. "We've locked on to the house. We are going to stop, though. Doctor? We are going to stop?" _

_The Doctor ignored her as he piloted the ship over the English landscape. At the last moment, he pulled up the spaceship's nose and opened a hatch in the floor. After one last look at Wilf, he jumped out of the ship and fell through the glass dome of the mansion._

In the bedroom of the farmhouse on Pete's World, the Doctor cried out in pain.

While Jackie continued to berate her daughter, Rose disconnected and rushed into the room. And watched in horror as cuts began to appear on the Doctor's face and hands.


	7. Chapter 6

**a/n: Recognizable dialogue from and major spoilers for the episode _The End of Time_.**

* * *

**Chapter Six**

Fear replaced horror as Rose watched more cuts and abrasions appear on the Doctor's face and hands. His knuckles were scraped and there were deep cuts on his nose and lip. The most serious, though, was a wound along the side of his face that stretched from his forehead down to his cheek. That was assuming, of course, that he wasn't suffering from internal injuries.

There was no doubt in her mind that this had been caused by whatever the other Doctor was going through, but she had had no idea before this began that by linking to his other self he was risking physical trauma. She began to rush to him… and then stopped herself. He had told her not to try to bring him out of the trance, not for anything, for fear that a suddenly broken link could distract the other Doctor so much that he would be even more vulnerable to being killed than he was right now. And there was no way she was signing the other's death warrant.

Still, the Doctor had said knowing she was here for him would help him maintain the link. Perhaps she could treat his injuries without disturbing him.

_Bruised and battered and surrounded by broken glass, the Doctor lay face down on the marble floor of the mansion, barely able to move, barely able to breathe let alone hold up the revolver that was still in his hand. It had been a calculated risk, jumping from the spaceship like that. Literally. __The calculations he had done while piloting the ship had included estimating the distance the ship would be above the mansion_, the potential drag caused by holding his arms and legs out spread-eagle, and having the glass of the roof break his fall. Still, he knew he was lucky to be alive. At least for the minute. With the Master behind him and Rassilon, the Lord President of Gallifrey, in front of him, he had no doubt that he wouldn't remain that way.

_Rassilon, regally garbed as if for a meeting of the Senate, stood on a dais at the front of the room where only a short while earlier had stood the Vinvocci gate. Flanking him, also in ceremonial robes, were two members of his Cabinet—and behind him stood two more Time Lords, a man and a woman. Their heads were bowed, and their hands covered their faces in a formal gesture of shame._

_"My Lord Doctor. My Lord Master," Rassilon said, addressing them formally. "We are gathered for the end."_

With pursed lips and holding a damp flannel she had retrieved from the en suite, Rose slowly crossed the room and sank down next to him. He was trembling from head to toe, and despite his arm being flat on the bed, he seemed to be reaching for something. As she gently cleaned his wounds with the flannel, he quietly moaned, and she drew on her reserves that lay deep within herself to try and remain calm.

"What do I do?" she whispered when she had finished. "What do I do?" Her mind raced, but she couldn't think of a single thing she could do to help him. Impulsively, she grabbed his outstretched hand and squeezed it.

Although the Doctor was still deep within his telepathic trance, nevertheless he could still sense Rose nearby, and the feel of her hand in his helped him to calm himself. His other self, the Time Lord Doctor, was still on the floor of the mansion, attempting to hold the gun. He sent more of himself through the link, and the Time Lord slowly rose to his hands and knees.

_"The approach begins," Rassilon said._

_"Approach of what?" the Master asked. _

_"Something is returning," the Doctor told him sharply. "Don't you ever listen? That was the prophecy. Not someone, some thing." _

_"What is it?" the Master asked._

_"They're not just bringing back the species," the Doctor told him. "It's Gallifrey. Right here, right now."_

_Overhead, clearly visible through the broken glass roof, appeared the enormous, war-weary planet of Gallifrey, its surface glowing a frightening, angry red and orange. The sheer size and mass of the homeworld of the Time Lords created tidal forces on Earth that shook the smaller planet to its core, creating planetwide earthquakes. The building began to shake._

_"Come on, get out of the way," Wilf said as he burst into the room and pushed past the guards. "Get out of the way! Doctor?"_

_In one of the glass booths on the far side of the room, a technician was pounding on the door, asking for help, and Wilf crossed over to him. _

_"All right! I've got you, mate," he said, entering the second booth. "I've got you."_

"Wilf, don't. Don't!" the Doctor protested. Rose gently squeezed his hand, and he began to calm again.

_"But this is fantastic, isn't it?" the Master said. "The Time Lords restored."_

_"You weren't there in the final days of the War," the Doctor said to him. "You never saw what was born. But if the Timelock's broken, then everything's coming through. Not just the Daleks, but the Skaro Degradations, the Horde of Travesties, the Nightmare Child, the Could-have-been King with his army of Meanwhiles and Never-weres. The War turned into hell. And that's what you've opened, right above the Earth."_

"Hell is descending," the Doctor muttered.

_"My kind of world," the Master said with a grin._

_"Just listen!" the Doctor pleaded through clenched teeth. "Because even the Time Lords can't survive that." He winced in pain._

_"We will initiate the Final Sanction," Rassilon told them. "The end of time will come at my hand. The rupture will continue until it rips the Time Vortex apart."_

_The Master stared at him. "That's suicide." _

_"We will ascend to become creatures of consciousness alone," Rassilon proclaimed. "Free of these bodies, free of time and cause and effect, while creation itself ceases to be." _

_"You see now?" the Doctor said quietly. "That's what they were planning in the final days of the War." _

"I had to stop them," the Doctor whispered.

_"Then, take me with you, Lord President," the Master said. "Let me ascend into glory." With his arms out he sank to his knees in supplication._

_Rassilon's lip curled in disgust. "You are diseased," he replied, "albeit a disease of our own making. No more." He raised his gauntlet-covered hand, intending to throw an energy bolt at the Master. _

_In one move, the Doctor stood and aimed the revolver in his hand at Rassilon. He cocked it, and the click echoed in the quiet room. For some reason the gun felt heavy to him, heavier than before at any rate, and it quivered slightly in his hand._

_"Choose your enemy well," Rassilon said to him. "We are many. The Master is but one."_

_Behind him, the Master spoke. "But he's the President," he hissed. "Kill him, and Gallifrey could be yours."_

_The Doctor spun around and pointed the gun at the Master._

_"He's to blame, not me," the Master protested. But then realization struck. "Oh, the link is inside my head. Kill me, the link gets broken, they go back." He narrowed his eyes. "You never would, you coward. Go on then. Do it."_

_The Doctor turned again and again pointed the gun at Rassilon._

_"Exactly. It's not just me, it's him. He's the link. Kill him!" the Master urged. _

_"The final act of your life is murder," Rassilon said to the Doctor. "But which one of us?"_

_How could he look his victim in the eye and commit cold-blooded murder? And how could he choose? A voice from his past, his own voice, the voice of his previous incarnation, echoed in his ears._

"Coward. Any day," the Doctor murmured. Tears sprung to Rose's eyes as she recognized the voice of her first Doctor. She sniffed, trying not to cry. She needed to be strong for him, she reminded herself.

_The woman behind Rassilon lowered her hands from her face, and tears sprung to his eyes as he realized who it was. His hearts broke at the look of love and absolution she gave him even as tears of her own rolled down her face. She gave him a small nod and then glanced over his shoulder, and he suddenly had the answer. He whirled around and pointed the gun back at the Master, the man he had both loved and hated since childhood. The Master stared back at him, fear and resignation in his eyes._

"Get out of the way," the Doctor commanded in a low voice.

_The Master began to smile. He leapt to the side, and the Doctor shot the diamond focus that was maintaining the link between Gallifrey and the Master. _

_"The link is broken," the Doctor shouted. "Back into the Time War, Rassilon. Back into hell."_

_"You'll die with me, Doctor," Rassilon told him._

_"I know," he answered, and Rassilon aimed his gauntlet at him._

_From behind him, the Master ordered, "Get out of the way." As the Doctor moved, the Master began to throw energy bolts at Rassilon. "You did this to me!" he shouted. "All of my life! You made me! One! Two! Three! Four!"_

_As Rassilon was forced to his knees, a bright light surrounded them and they disappeared. Overhead, Gallifrey faded from existence, and the room was suddenly silent. _

_"I'm alive," the Doctor said in shock and disbelief. He began to giggle. "I've. There was. I'm still alive."_

The Doctor's eyes popped open, and he stared at Rose. "I…we…he did it!" Giggling, he sat up and pulled her into his arms. "He's alive! It's over, and he's alive!"

She buried her face in his neck. "Oh, thank God."

"And now that that's over and the link is broken, he can go his way and we can go ours." He moved to kiss her and then winced. "Ow."

She pulled away and raised a hand to the worst of his injuries. "How…"

"He jumped out of a spaceship. Luckily crashing through a glass roof broke his fall."

She was horrified. "But… but you didn't. Why do you have injuries?"

"Bio-spatial multiplicity," he said. "Transmitted through the link. Time Lords are particularly—" He broke off as a tickle in the back of his mind distracted him. He shook it off. "Never mind. Not important."

"Well, I bet you're hungry," she said. "Other than a bit of marmalade, you haven't eaten at all today. Come on. Let's go to the kitchen and I'll make you some tea."

He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and leaned on her heavily as they walked the short distance downstairs. He was exhausted. The telepathic link to his other self, feeling the emotional and physical upheaval the Time Lord Doctor had experienced, had worn his part human body out.

"Here we go," Rose said. "Why don't you sit at the table while I make the tea." She picked up the teapot and filled it at the sink.

"Wait," he said. He froze as he heard someone knocking. Four knocks. One, two, three, four, and then a rest. And then again. One, two, three, four.

The knocking filled his head, almost but not quite drowning out all other sounds. He gasped and held his hands to his head, pressing the palms of his hands to his temples. They repeated and repeated, four knocks over and over.

He stood up, clutching handfuls of his hair in his fists. "No," he said. "No, it's not fair."

"Doctor? Doctor, what is it?"

"It's not fair!" he yelled. He grabbed the vase from the table and hurled it across the room, shattering a window next to the outside door. "Ahh!" He doubled over, clutching his arm, and then met Rose's eyes. "It's not over after all. And I can't break the link." His face contorted in pain.

"I could do so much more," he continued, now in a voice that was slightly higher, slightly less rough. "It's not fair… Oh, I've lived too long."

Slowly the Doctor straightened, and he looked unseeing in front of him. "Wilfred," he said softly. "It's my honor. Better be quick. Three, two, one." He pantomimed walking through a door and closing it behind him.

And then he screamed.

He sank to his knees. As he collapsed on the floor, Rose flew to his side and pulled out her mobile. "Owen, get here now. It's the Doctor."

~oOo~

Less than ten minutes later, Owen Harper burst through the door of the farmhouse carrying his medkit, followed closely by Toshiko. Rose could hear two other cars drive up, undoubtedly Ianto and Gwen.

"Tyler, Tyler," he called."Rose, where are you?"

"Back here, in the kitchen."

Owen followed the sound of her voice, Tosh, Gwen, and Ianto close on his heels. They found Rose seated cross-legged on the floor, the Doctor's head cradled in her lap. Owen could see the Doctor was conscious, but his breathing was labored.

"What is it? What's happened?" Owen asked.

"I dunno," she said. "He just… collapsed."

"Telepathic communication," the Doctor said weakly.

"Has that happened before?" Owen asked. "Collapsing because of a telepathic communication?"

The Doctor shook his head. "No. Not like this." He stretched his hand out to Owen. "Help me up. Need to get to the TARDIS. Medbay there. Better equipped than Torchwood."

Owen nodded. "Where is it?" he asked.

"Right outside," Rose said. "The Doctor moved it next to the house as soon as she was ready to fly."

Owen jerked his head at Ianto and the two men helped the Doctor to his feet. Before they had taken more than a half dozen steps towards the door leading to the garden, the Doctor pulled away from them, staggered to the bin in the corner and was violently ill. Rose rushed to his side.

He stood up and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "Sink," he whispered, and Rose helped him across the room. Once there, he took a glass from the drying rack, filled it with water and rinsed out his mouth.

"TARDIS," he whispered hoarsely, and with his arms around their shoulders, Ianto and Rose helped him back across the room.

"What can I do?" Gwen asked.

"Call Martha Jones at Torchwood Four. Better ring her on her mobile due to the late hour. Let's see if she can do more than treat a paper cut," Owen answered. "Explain to her the situation and tell her to get out here. I hate to admit it, but I don't know what I'm dealing with here and I may need some help. Then be ready to head back to the Hub. I don't know what his medbay has in it, so I may need you to bring some of my medical equipment here. I don't want to move him there, and he certainly can't go in hospital."

She nodded and pulled out her mobile.

"And Gwen," he added, "you may want to ring Rhys and tell him we're gonna be a while."

As Ianto and Rose helped the Doctor out the back door, Owen turned to Toshiko. "Phone Rose's parents," Rose heard him tell the other woman quietly. "Tell them they need to get out here as fast as possible."


	8. Chapter 7

**a/n: Recognizable dialogue from and spoilers for the episode _The End of Time_.**

* * *

**Chapter Seven**

With the Doctor's arms around their shoulders, Rose and Ianto helped the Doctor down the lone hall of the TARDIS to the medbay.

When they had entered the TARDIS, the ever unflappable Ianto hadn't said anything about the cavernous room located inside what looked to be an English oak. His only reaction to seeing the bigger-on-the-inside interior was a slight raise of his eyebrows, something that would have disappointed the Doctor had his condition not been so grave.

"Just a little bit farther," the Doctor gasped. "Second door on the left."

Once in the medbay, they half walked, half carried the Doctor over to the examination bed. It took him three tries, but the Doctor finally managed to climb onto it, and only with Ianto's help. After they removed his jacket, he lay down and Rose sat down on a chair next to him. Exhausted by the effort, the Doctor closed his eyes and immediately fell asleep.

"I'll go find Owen," Ianto said.

~oOo~

_The Doctor found himself standing next to Wilf in front of the TARDIS. Across the street, Sylvia was standing in the doorway of their home._

_"Where are you going?" Wilf asked him._

_"To get my reward," the Doctor answered._

~oOo~

With difficulty, the Doctor opened his eyes to find that Rose was sitting next to him on the bed. She brushed a lock of his fringe away from the wound on his forehead.

"Rose," he began.

"Shh, shh," she said. "You need to rest."

He shook his head. "No, I have to talk to you. I have to tell you…" His body stiffened as he tried to fight a wave of pain that swept through him, and then he slid back into unconsciousness.

~oOo~

_The Doctor wandered around the console of the TARDIS, programming in the first set of coordinates. Davros had been wrong. Oh, yes, he left his companions behind and didn't look back, but not out of shame. Never out of shame._

_No, he didn't go back because it was just too painful. He couldn't cross his own time stream, and once they died in his personal timeline, that was the end. If he didn't go back, they were still alive to him. But if this was the end, if he truly was going to die, it was time to allow himself to see them again. He couldn't see them all, couldn't see the ones who had died, but the ones who were still alive…_

_He flinched as a wave of pain swept through his body. No, he thought, have to hang on. Have to hold out just a little bit longer. He closed his eyes and took a deep, cleansing breath. He slowly let it out, willing the pain away, and it gradually faded._

_He had given up so much, had lost so much over the centuries. Family. Friends. His people. His world. The universe owed him. It was time for his reward._

_"Time to go back to the beginning," he said._

~oOo~

As Owen walked into the TARDIS medbay, he tried not to gape. The first room he had entered had been incredible enough, with its mushroom shaped console and support struts that seemed more grown than built, but that had seemed so totally alien that it had been immediately classified in his mind as just one more bizarre thing he had encountered during his time at Torchwood. This, however, seemed more comprehensible and thus more amazing. The sterile, white room was easily twice as large as his portion of the Hub. The walls, covered with the same roundels as he had seen in the console room, were producing a bright white light that clearly illuminated the room without being harsh, and on one wall he saw two doors, one that led to the loo or possibly an en suite, and the other presumably to a storage cupboard. An adjoining wall was lined with shelf upon shelf of exotic medical equipment. Even though Owen had been a doctor for more than a decade and was also well versed in alien tech, less than half of the devices on the shelves looked familiar to him.

The Doctor lay on a hospital bed on the opposite side of the room. At the head of the bed was a large screen displaying his vital signs, while at the foot of the bed was a trolley that held more medical devices.

The Doctor had been right. His medbay was far better equipped than Torchwood's was.

Rose was sitting on a chair at the head of the bed, holding the Doctor's hand. "You're gonna be alright," she was saying. "Owen is here, and Martha's coming and they're gonna figure this out, yeah?" Eyes closed, the Doctor nodded.

"How's he doing?" Owen asked her, setting his own woefully inadequate medical kit on the floor.

"Going in and out of consciousness," she told him.

Owen frowned. "Martha's on her way, along with your parents," he said. "They should be here in less than an hour. Evidently your dad is calling in a few favors, and they're coming by helicopter."

"I understand you calling for Martha," she said, "but why Mum and Dad?"

He knew from experience that Rose wasn't one to panic, but since this involved the Doctor, who knew what her reaction would be. Her voice was already tinged with fear, and the last thing he needed was a hysterical girlfriend on his hands, Owen decided. Not only would it make his own job more difficult, but it wouldn't do the Doctor any good either.

"Don't read into it any more than is there, Tyler," he responded in an abrasive tone as he read the display of the Doctor's vital signs on the monitor. "We've got a resident alien, one that I might add is basically a member of our staff, that is reportedly under a telepathic attack of an unknown nature. Of course I've got to report it to the Director."

"But you didn't tell Tosh to phone the Director of Torchwood," she said. "You had her call my parents. Why?"

Ignoring her, he walked over to the medical trolley and began to search it. It only took a moment to find what he was looking for: a portable scanner similar to the one he had in the Hub. As he scanned the Doctor, he frowned.

"Radiation poisoning," the Doctor said clearly. "Five hundred thousand rads."

Owen and Rose stared at him, surprised by both his answer and his lucidity.

"That would explain the readings I'm getting," Owen said. "But something like that would kill you instantly, not to mention there's no trace of radiation in your body."

"Time Lord," the Doctor answered. "Plus, it's the symptoms being passed through the link, not the radiation itself."

"If that's the case," Owen said, "couldn't we just shield you somehow?"

The Doctor grimaced in pain and shook his head. "Not… possible. Not…" He looked pleadingly at Rose, unable to speak.

"Wouldn't work in this case," Rose answered. "The other person is… himself. Before you met him there was an accident and he kinda… split himself into two people."

Owen turned and stared at the man lying on the bed. "Lord. The things you see at Torchwood. And I thought I had heard everything."

"I know, right?" She sighed deeply and ran a hand through her hair. "Anyway, the other Doctor, the other _him_, is a whole universe away. If a whole universe can't block their connection, a little bit of electromagnetic shielding won't be able to."

"Holy crap," Owen said.

~oOo~

_The Doctor stood at the edge of the park. It wasn't particularly large, really only a bit of empty space in the upper scale neighborhood. A bit of lawn at one end, play equipment and park benches at the other. He sat down on one of the park benches and watched as an elderly couple entered the park from the other side. A little girl with dark hair and a pixie face walked between them, holding their hands. As soon as they entered the play area, the girl pulled away from them and ran off, headed towards the swings._

_"Push me, please," she pleaded after she sat on one of the swings._

_"Alright, alright," the man said, smiling. He began to push her and she swung slowly back and forth._

_"Higher, Granddad, higher," the little girl demanded._

_"Higher?" the man asked, a touch of teasing in his voice. "Are you sure?"_

_"Higher!" The child squealed in delight as her grandfather pushed her harder and she swung higher and higher._

_"Okay, that's quite high enough, Ian," the woman said with a smile._

_This is how it all started, the Doctor thought. With Ian and Barbara. And Susan._

_And now Ian and Barbara Chesterton had their own granddaughter._

_His hearts broke as he thought about his own beloved granddaughter. He could see his companions, but he wouldn't be able to see her._

~oOo~

An hour later, Rose ran a hand across the Doctor's forehead. He felt as if he were burning up. She dipped a flannel in a bowl of cool water, wrung it out and dabbed his face with it.

"Ian, Barbara," he whispered. "Susan. My dear Susan. I'm so sorry."

"It's alright," Rose said softly.

"Susan," the Doctor whispered again.

"Who is Susan?" Owen asked.

"Susan is… was… his granddaughter," Rose said.

Owen raised his eyebrows. "Granddaughter? Just how old is he anyway?"

She chuckled humorlessly. "Honestly, Owen? I really don't know. I'm not even sure he does."

~oOo~

_The Doctor forced away the symptoms of the radiation sickness and dampened down the familiar golden energy attempting to course through his body. _

_"Not yet," he muttered._

_He had seen so many of his friends so far, although he had not allowed them to see him. To be fair, they wouldn't have known him anyway, but most would have recognized the TARDIS. After seeing Ian and Barbara, he had gone to see Victoria and Steven. Liz Shaw on the Moonbase. Jo Jones and her family demonstrating in Africa for an end to poverty. John Benton in retirement in the Yorkshire countryside. Seeing Jamie and Zoe was particularly hard, because neither remembered their time with him. But oh, he remembered. And everyone he had seen was so brilliant._

_He materialized on the manicured grounds of a large home in Peru. When he exited the TARDIS, he smiled as he saw Alistair taking a kip in a chair on the wide porch. After a moment, Doris, his wife, walked out the door carrying a tray filled with sandwiches and lemon squash. Her eyes widened as she recognized the TARDIS. She opened her mouth to call out to him, and he held a finger to his lips, nodding at her sleeping husband. She nodded back._

_He reentered the TARDIS, and when he crossed to the console he set the coordinates for Australia._

_Time to see Tegan._

~oOo~

In the TARDIS's medbay in Pete's World, the Doctor opened his eyes. Rose was still beside him, but he didn't see Owen.

At his questioning look, she said, "I think Martha's here. Owen went out to find her." The Doctor nodded. "I've got to warn you, though, Mum and Dad were coming, too, so if she's here, they're here as well." She gave him a small smile, and he rolled his eyes, a gesture that was more painful than he expected. He involuntarily grimaced.

"Should have known your mother wouldn't let me get away with missing Christmas dinner," he said, and she laughed quietly.

"Rose," he continued, "Before they come in… I'm sorry. I thought it was over, but it's not. He and I are still linked telepathically."

"I know," she said. "You told me that before."

He searched his memory. "Yeah, I did, didn't I?"

"Can't you break away?" she asked.

He shook his head. "Being a full Time Lord, he's a much stronger telepath than I am. He needs to terminate the link. I can't. I've tried. But the problem is, he's so focused on what's going on around him that he doesn't even realize we are linked." He swallowed thickly and looked at her straight on, the fear on his face dwarfed by his concern for her. "He's… ill. He's fighting it off, but I don't know how long he's going to be able to do it.

"But Rose, there's more. I've told you about the matrix on Gallifrey, how Time Lords could enter it mentally even while they were still alive. What I didn't tell you, however, is that that world became just as real as the physical world was. The mind doesn't know the difference between a real and a vividly imagined experience, and whatever happened in the matrix to you mentally would be reflected in your body in the physical world. If you were injured in the matrix, your body would reflect that. And if you died…" He took a deep breath and squeezed her hand. "Well, your body would die as well."

Her heart pounded painfully in her chest. "And what does that mean to us?" she asked, dreading his answer.

"The matrix was essentially a telepathic link. What happens mentally in a telepathic link is reflected in the body. And what happens to one person can happen to the other person unless the link is broken. And what that means…" he said. His eyes closed, and he appeared to drift off.

"Doctor, Doctor," Rose said desperately. "Doctor, wake up. What does it mean?"

"What it means," he whispered without opening his eyes, "is if he dies… or even if he regenerates… there's a chance that if we are still linked…"

She shook her head, staring at him in horror. "No. No." Her free hand shook as she covered her mouth with it. "No," she whispered. _This cannot be happening_, she thought. "But you told me… you _said_ the link would be broken if he regenerated."

"Normally it would be," he told her. "But this is _not_ a normal situation."

"But you said, you _promised_ that we'd grow old together." Tears sprung to her eyes, and she quickly wiped them away with her sleeve, not wanting to cry in front of him.

He sniffed, trying to hold back his own tears. "I'm sorry, Rose," he said. "I'm so, so sorry."

She took a deep, ragged breath and nodded.

All of a sudden a look of distress crossed his face, and he quickly covered his mouth with his hand. She grabbed a small plastic bowl from the medical trolley and held it up to him while he threw up again. When he was done, he lay back on the bed and closed his eyes. She put the bowl back on the table, intending to clean it out in a moment, and then took one of his hands in hers.

"Sorry about that," he whispered.

She shook her head and then realized he couldn't see her. "No, it's okay," she said gently. She leaned forward and kissed his forehead. He was burning up. "Do you feel any better?"

"I'm just so tired," he said weakly, not quite answering her question.

"You just get some rest," she said softly and then realized he was already asleep again. She gently kissed him on the forehead again and then stood to clean out his sick bowl. She carried it to the loo attached to the room.

She had just finished cleaning it out and returned to the Doctor's side when Owen entered the room with Martha. Martha quickly crossed the room to her.

"Martha, thank you so much for coming," Rose said as the other woman pulled her into a hug.

"Of course, Rose," Martha replied. "Your mum and dad will be in in a few moments. I just wanted the opportunity to examine him first." After another few seconds, she pulled away to read the monitor next to the bed. "How long has he been like this?"

"He's been running a fever for a little over an hour," Owen told her. He handed Martha the scanner, and she began her own scan of the Doctor.

"The rest, maybe two hours," Rose answered. She turned back to the Doctor and took his hand. It felt even hotter than his head had. He looked even thinner than usual, almost gaunt, she thought. And he was so pale. His freckles stood out in sharp relief against his skin. She bent down and kissed his forehead again, running her hand through his hair. As she lifted her hand up, she realized his hair was coming out in clumps. "Don't die," she whispered. "Please. Please don't die." Her body shaking, she rocked herself back and forth, trying to hold back the sobs that had been threatening to erupt from her since he had first become ill.

Martha went to the door and let Pete and Jackie into the room. Jackie rushed across the room and pulled her daughter into a hug.

"Oh, Mum," Rose said. "Oh, Mum, he's dying. The Doctor's dying, and there's nothing I can do about it."

~oOo~

_By now the Doctor had seen Nyssa, Turlough, Peri, and Mel. He knew that despite opportunities to run the hospital where he had met her, Grace was still practicing medicine. In fact under her leadership, the cardiology department had become one of the best in the country. Over the course of his eighth incarnation he had often wanted to go back and see her. _

_He set the coordinates for San Francisco._

~oOo~

Pete turned to Owen and Martha. "Isn't there something you can do?"

Martha shook her head.

"I'm sorry," Owen told him. "The problem is his body thinks he's got radiation poisoning, but he doesn't. His body shows all the symptoms of advanced radiation poisoning, but when we tested him, we found absolutely no trace of radiation." His voice dropped to a whisper. "And even if he had been exposed, his symptoms are so far advanced we wouldn't be able to treat it anyway."

The Doctor's eyes fluttered open, and he weakly squeezed Rose's hand. Through her tears, she squeezed back.

"Rose," He whispered. "There's one…" He took a deep breath and met her eyes. "One more thing I can do. I can try to deepen the link."

"What! You can't," she protested. "You've got to break it, not strengthen it!"

"I can't," he told her. "But he might be able to. If I can just contact him, just…"

"Can you do that?" she asked.

"Yes," he said. "Maybe. I don't know. What I do know is I have to try."

~oOo~

_Exhausted from fighting off his regeneration, the Doctor leaned heavily on the console. The last people he had seen had been his companions and friends in this body. With these, instead of just seeing them, he had helped them. And not in minor ways, either. Oh, in none of these cases had he changed a fixed point, but he had come as close as he could without crossing the line. He needed to help them as they had helped him in oh, so many ways._

_He had saved Mickey and Martha's lives._

_He had saved the life of Sarah Jane's son, Luke._

_He had introduced a grieving Jack Harkness to someone who could, albeit temporarily, relieve his loneliness._

_And Donna. His best friend, Donna. He smiled as he thought of her. He had gone back in time to borrow a quid from her father and purchased for her a winning lottery ticket for a wedding present. It was such a small thing for him compared to what he had had to take from her, but he knew it would secure her financial future with her new husband._

_He heard the sound of someone clearing his throat. He looked up from the console to see his blue pinstriped counterpart standing opposite him._

_"Don't know why I'm surprised to see you. I've seen just about everyone else," the Time Lord said. "Tell me, are you really here, or are you just a symptom of the fever?"_

_"Really here," the Doctor said. "Only telepathically, but really here."_

_"No offense, but this isn't exactly a good time for a social call."_

_He snorted. "Believe me, if I had a choice I wouldn't be here." He grew serious. "We've been telepathically linked for a while, and I can't break it. You're gonna have to."_

_"How long?"_

_"Solidly since 'worst rescue ever', but off and on since the Ood homeworld."_

_"That long, eh? Then you saw…"_

_"Everything," the Doctor answered._

_A sudden wave of pain struck, and the Time Lord bent over, clutching his stomach and gasping. _

_"You need to send me back," the Doctor said urgently. "Now, before it's too late."_

_The Time Lord nodded and closed his eyes. When he reopened them, his counterpart was still there._

_"Try again," the Doctor implored._

_The Time Lord's face screwed up in concentration. When he reopened his eyes, the part human Doctor was still in front of him._

_"Please, please, you've got to do it! You've got to break the link! You've got to send me back!"_

_"I'm sorry," the brown pinstriped Doctor said._

_The Doctor sank down on the jump seat and watched as the Time Lord staggered over to the controls. "One more stop," the Time Lord said. "It won't be far; we don't need to go far. Just a little sideways jump and then a tiny hop into the past."_

_"We're crossing our own timeline, you know," the blue-suited Doctor said. "Risking a paradox. Perhaps risking our very existence." It was an observation, not a criticism._

_"I know," the Time Lord replied out loud, his voice echoing in the empty room. "But I have to see her again. Just one more time. I'll never get another chance." _

_"We both need to see her again," the part human Doctor said softly. "Because I'm not getting back, am I? You're not strong enough to send me back, are you?"_

_"I'm sorry. I am so, so sorry."_

_"Well, if this is the last goodbye for both of us, let's make it a good one."_

~oOo~

"Allons-y," the Doctor whispered.

"No," Rose said. "Stay with me, Doctor. Stay with me."

~oOo~

_Standing in the shadows next to the block of flats where Rose and Jackie lived, the Doctor tried to pick out Rose's flat. It was dark; they weren't home. He sighed, disappointed, and the sound turned into a quiet groan of pain._

_Must hold out just a bit longer, he thought. Just a little bit longer. Just until I see her._

_He chuckled to himself when he heard their voices at the other end of the courtyard. Rose and Jackie were squabbling, with Rose scolding her mother for something or other. Domestic. Completely domestic._

_Why in the universe had he ever scorned domestics? _

_Jackie turned and left, and Rose continued towards her flat. He backed up further into the shadows, but the movement sent a fresh surge of pain through his body. He groaned again, trying unsuccessfully to stifle the sound._

_Rose turned. "You all right, mate?"_

_"Yeah," he answered._

_"Too much to drink?" she asked. _

_"Something like that," he said._

_"Maybe it's time you went home," she suggested._

_If only I could, both Doctors thought._

_"Yeah," he said instead._

_"Anyway, Happy New Year," she said._

_"And you."_

_She turned to go, but he couldn't bear it. "What year is this?" he asked, desperate to prolong the conversation._

_She stared into the shadows at him in amazement. "Blimey, how much have you had? 2005, January the first." _

_"2005." He smiled. This is when it all began. "Tell you what. I bet you're going to have a really great year."_

_"Yeah?" She showered him with a bright grin. Oh, she was so beautiful. His hearts squeezed painfully at the sight of her smile, and his eyes grew suspiciously moist. "See you," she said and with another backward glance she ran off._

_Oh, yes, you will, he thought. If only I could see you._

_Another wave of pain shot through him. It was time. As he staggered back towards the TARDIS, Ood Sigma's voice echoed in his mind._

_"We will sing to you, Doctor. The universe will sing you to your sleep. This song is ending, but the story never ends."_

_As he stumbled through the TARDIS door, his mind was filled with both the memories of their time traveling together and his meta-crisis self's memories in Pete's world. Seeing her again had been incredibly painful for both of them for different reasons but had been oh, so worth it. Hers had been the first face he had seen in this regeneration. It was fitting that it now would be the last._

_For the last time, he took off his long brown overcoat and crossed to the console. The regeneration energy was beginning to heal him, beginning to change him. He could feel the energy course through his body, and this time he was powerless to stop it. _

_This is the end, his meta-crisis self whispered in the Time Lord's mind. _

_It wasn't supposed to be like this; you two were supposed to grow old together, the Time Lord Doctor thought back. I am so, so sorry._

_And as he stood in front of the console, his entire body began to glow._

_"I don't want to go!" they cried with one voice, and golden energy exploded out of him, changing the last of the Time Lords forever._

~oOo~

"I don't want to go," the Doctor said in the TARDIS's medbay in Pete's World, and they all stared in shock as the Doctor's hand began to glow.

Golden light surrounded the Doctor's body, only to fade to nothing a moment later.

"His body's trying to regenerate," Rose told them, her voice breaking. "But he can't. He's too human."

"His heart rate is becoming erratic," Owen said. "I'm going to try and shock him into a normal rhythm. Martha, get the defibrillator. Everyone, out."

"I'm not leavin' him," Rose insisted as Pete led Jackie out of the room.

Owen looked at her evenly, and then finally nodded. "Alright, fine. But Tyler, I need you to stand back."

Rose backed up as Martha took the portable defibrillator out of the medkit that Owen had brought from the Hub.

Ripping open the t-shirt the Doctor was wearing, Owen spread a thick gel on his chest and placed the paddles of the defibrillator in position. "Okay, clear." After the shock was delivered, Owen quickly glanced at the monitor. "It's not making any difference. Again. Clear. And, clear." He glanced at the monitor again. "Damn it, he's flat-lining. I'm starting CPR. Martha—"

But Martha was already on the move. She found a syringe of epinephrine already waiting for her on the trolley and quickly injected it. Owen then began to administer direct chest compressions. Rose watched from across the room, hugging herself. After discarding the syringe, Martha retrieved an oxygen mask from the trolley which under normal circumstances she would have sworn hadn't been there moments earlier. She placed the mask over the Doctor's mouth and nose.

"Now," Owen repeatedly directed, telling Martha to administer artificial respiration between compressions. After long minutes that felt like hours to Rose, Owen shook his head.

"Call it," he said.

Martha glanced at her watch. "Death occurred at 7:48 am. I'm so sorry, Rose."

Rose shook her head. "No," she said. "No, he can't be dead. Try again."

"I'm sorry, Rose." Owen's face reflected an uncharacteristic look of compassion. "There's just nothing else we can do."

"But, but, the medbay is filled with all sorts of advanced equipment. Can't you try something else?"

Owen sighed. "I'm sorry, but he was too far gone. Nothing here can bring him back from the dead." He pressed a button on the side of the monitor above the Doctor's head and turned it off. He jerked his head towards the door, and he and Martha left the room to give Rose some privacy.

Rose walked slowly to the bed where the Doctor's body lay. Pulling a chair next to him, she sat down and looked at him. His eyes were closed, as if he were just sleeping. Reaching out with one hand, she gently touched him. He was warm, warmer than a human for a change due to the fever he had had for hours. She gently brushed a lock of his fringe off his forehead and then traced his beloved features with her fingertips: his wonky left ear; his thin, slightly crooked nose; his sideburn and jaw.

Drawing a ragged breath, she bit her lip and tried not to cry. "You promised to grow old with me," she whispered. "You promised. You…" She laid her head on his shoulder. "You promised."

Behind her, Jackie burst through the door, Pete on her heels, and Rose turned at the sound.

"Oh, Mum," she cried, tears breaking free as she fell into her mother's arms. "He's dead. The Doctor's dead."

Jackie held her and rocked Rose gently as her daughter wept. After several minutes, Rose finally pulled away and wiped her face.

"Mum, I'm sorry, but can you leave us for a few minutes? I just want to be alone with him for a bit."

"Oh, Rose," Jackie protested. She looked helplessly at her husband.

Pete jerked his head at the door. "C'mon, Jacks. We're gonna give her a few moments." He wrapped his arm around his wife and spoke to Rose. "We'll wait for you out in the main room."

After they had left, Rose curled up on the bed next to the Doctor, not noticing the monitor above him had turned itself back on and two words were forming on its display screen.

_Bad Wolf_


	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight**

As the events unfolded in the TARDIS medbay, the console room was being used as a makeshift waiting room. After the initial shock of chairs appearing seemingly out of nowhere, Ianto, Toshiko, and Pete sat down to wait for word on the Doctor's condition. Gwen, who had spent time in the TARDIS several months earlier, and Jackie, who was used to all things odd as far as the Doctor was concerned, took it all in stride. Periodically Owen or Martha would come into the room to update them on the Doctor's condition or to ask Jackie and Pete to join Rose.

Eventually, after hours of waiting for word, Pete and Jackie returned to the console room. From Jackie's fearful expression and the grave look Pete gave them, they didn't need to ask how the Doctor was doing. When Owen and Martha both joined them a few minutes later, their worst fears were confirmed.

"Jackie," Martha said quietly. "You and Pete can go back in now. Rose is going to need you."

Jackie nodded tightly. Pete wrapped an arm around her shoulders and led her from the room in the direction of the medbay.

An oppressive silence descended as no one quite knew how to react to the Doctor's death. They had all not only gotten to know him but care about him over the last few months. It was shocking to have someone so full of life die so suddenly. Finally, after several minutes of no one saying anything, Owen exploded.

"Fuck!" he yelled. He strode around the room, looking like he wanted to punch something. Toshiko got up, wanting to comfort him, but then thought better of it and sat back down.

"God damn it, I should have been able to prevent this," he continued. "What the hell is the point of being a doctor if you can't save someone? There he was, in a fucking room full of fucking space age medical equipment on a God damned spaceship…" He stalked away to the opposite side of the room, as far away as he could get from the others without actually leaving the TARDIS.

At the others' questioning glances, Martha shook her head. "There wasn't anything we could do."

"And what's worse, he wasn't even sick! He died of an illness he didn't even have!"

"Owen," Ianto said sharply. He nodded at the entrance to the hall, and Owen fell silent.

Rose's parents stood in the doorway, tears flowing freely down Jackie's face. Pete led her to a pair of chairs on the side of the room. As they sat down, a bell slowly and quietly began to toll.

~oOo~

In the medbay, Rose wept as she lay on the bed next to the Doctor's body.

"How am I gonna do this?" she asked him. "I don't know what to do. I spent all that time tryin' to get back to you and then we finally found each other again and… and now… and now…" She sniffed loudly. "Look at me, I'm gettin' your shoulder all wet. Well, you did say I could always cry on your shoulder." She chuckled humorlessly as she rested her forehead against said shoulder for a moment. "You do know this is not fair," she said as she wiped her face. "This is so not what I signed up for. I was supposed to be the one who was gonna wither and die, and you were gonna be the one to live forever. Then we were gonna grow old together. Nowhere in the script did it say you were gonna die before me."

As she spoke, the Cloister Bell began to toll, a quiet, mournful sound.

"See," she told him earnestly, wiping her eyes again. "You can't die. What's she gonna do without you? She needs you, too. We both… we both…"

And she began to weep again.

~oOo~

"What is that?" Gwen asked as the low, deep sound of the bell reverberated throughout the room. The ringing picked up in tempo and volume.

"Sounds like a warning of some type," Ianto said.

The displays on the console lit up, and the lights in the room began to brighten and dim.

"Rose once told me the Doctor and his old TARDIS were linked in some way," Jackie told them.

"If the Doctor's dead, what does that mean for this ship?" Toshiko asked. "Are we at risk of it blowing up or anything?"

"I don't think so," Jackie answered, but she sounded uncertain.

The ringing of the bell grew louder and more ominous. Instinctively they all looked around them as if searching for the source of the sound.

"Do we really want to take that chance?" Gwen asked nervously as the lights on the console began to flash.

"Rose," Jackie blurted out. "I've got to get Rose. Rose would know." She rushed down the hall and burst into the medbay. "Rose, something's goin' on out there. Don't you hear that bell? And there's lights blinkin' all over the place."

"The TARDIS, she's just upset," Rose told her. Wiping her face with her sleeve, she got up and followed her mother out to the console room, neither of the women noticing the words that had begun to flash on the monitor over the head of the bed.

In the console room, the volume of the bell had grown louder still. "It's the Cloister Bell," Rose told the others, having to raise her voice to be heard. "It rings when there's a crisis of some kind." She looked at the ceiling. "Can you turn that down, please?"

As the sound faded, Rose noticed the monitor on the console. Circles and other geometric shapes were forming on the display screen as if being written by an unseen hand. Once fully formed, the screen went blank, and then the circles began to form again. "What is it, girl?" she asked. She ran her hand along the edge of the console. "You know I can't read that, yeah? Only the Doctor can read that." She sighed. "It sure would help if you could put it in something I could read."

The screen went blank. Then two words began to form, this time in English.

Rose's jaw dropped.

"It says… it says 'Bad Wolf'," she whispered. "Oh my God, it says Bad Wolf!" She began to laugh, almost hysterically. "Mum! Mum! It says Bad Wolf! I can save him!"

"Save who?" Martha asked.

"The Doctor! I can save the Doctor!"

"Rose, the Doctor's dead," Owen said flatly. "You can't bring someone back from the dead."

"_You_ can't," she said.

"You can't either."

"Wouldn't be the first time. Been there, done that," she said cryptically. "But how can I do it this time?" She looked speculatively at the console.

"No, Rose, you _can't_," Jackie said. "Not again. It's too dangerous. And besides, we don't have a truck, and I'm not gettin' you one."

While the others puzzled over her comments, Rose shook her head. "I don't need one. I'm sure she'd open for me if I asked. But I think she's too young, and I don't think I need her help anyway," she said thoughtfully. At her words, something deep inside her flickered, a tiny ember that had never been totally extinguished. Her eyes lost focus as she looked inward, hearing voices from the past.

_"I am the Bad Wolf."_

_"There's something of the wolf about you…"_

_"Tell him this: two words. Bad Wolf."_

But there was more. She remembered the surge of golden energy she had felt when she had defended herself from the Kern. And then there was her ability to help the baby TARDIS grow. The memory of what the Doctor had said echoed through her mind.

_"You, Rose Tyler, are full of artron energy. Artron, Void, with just a hint of huon radiation, chronal energy and Time Vortex." _

Time Vortex. The Doctor had said Time Vortex. And artron energy.

_"Artron energy is one of the types of energy that is in the heart of the TARDIS… Artron energy… has enormous healing properties. It is one of the components of regeneration energy…"_

He couldn't regenerate, but maybe she could use the artron still within her to bring him back. If only she had enough left.

_"…your artron level was extremely low. You have no idea how dangerous that is for you. Your body has developed a dependence on the artron, and such a huge drop all at once could be dangerous for you. You're alright now, but if it happened again before your body adjusted to the new level, it could kill you."_

But she had taught herself how to control it while feeding the baby TARDIS some of her artron, she reminded herself.

"I can do this," she said aloud.

"Rose, just answer me one thing," her mother said. "Is whatever you're thinkin' of doin' safe?"

Rose didn't answer, didn't even look at her mother. Jackie's eyes widened.

"Rose, you can't," Jackie pleaded. "He wouldn't want you to."

Rose whirled on her. "But he isn't here," she said sharply. "Which is kinda the point. And I couldn't live with myself if there was something I could do and I didn't do it."

"Can you really bring him back?" Pete asked.

Rose met his eyes. "I think so, Dad."

"But Rose, you can't…" Jackie began again.

"Jacqueline Tyler, that's enough!" Pete snapped. He glared at her. "Rose is a grown woman and can make her own decisions. You can't honestly tell me that if it was Rose in there, or Tony, or your first husband, that you wouldn't do the same thing, try anything to get them back. And you know that if it was any of you in there, I'd do anything as well. Now you're going to let her try without making this any more difficult for her than it already is!"

Shamefaced, Jackie nodded silently. Pete turned to his stepdaughter.

"Go on, Rose," he said softly. "Bring him back."

She gave him a grateful smile and ran from the room.

"Now this I've got to see," Owen said.

Rose rushed into the medbay. And then stopped. And gaped. Flashing on the monitor over the bed and covering every surface – shelves, doors, equipment – and every inch of wall surrounding the roundels were the words Bad Wolf.

"You've been trying to get my attention, haven't you?" she murmured.

She crossed to the bed. The Doctor was so unnaturally still. The wounds on his hands and his face seemed all the more horrible compared to the deathly pallor of his skin, and there was still the thick gel on his chest from when Owen had used the defibrillator on him.

"I'm gonna bring you back, even if it kills me," she vowed, knowing it wasn't hyperbole.

She closed her eyes and sought that peaceful place within herself, the place she had always drawn the energy from that she had given to the TARDIS. But it eluded her; no matter how hard she tried to grab hold of it, it remained just out of reach.

"I know you can do it, Rose."

Rose turned in surprise. Jackie had come up behind her without Rose noticing, and the others stood by the door.

"I know you can," her mother continued. "I believe in you."

With tears in her eyes, she smiled at her mother. "Thanks, Mum," she murmured, then said more loudly, "Stand back. All of you."

Turning back to the bed, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, and this time when she reached for it, the energy reached back. She felt it surround her, penetrate her, surge through her. Somewhere behind her, as if from a far way off, she heard Owen swear.

"Bloody hell. She's glowing."

"I am the Bad Wolf," she whispered. "I create myself."

Rose held out her hands and tried to channel the energy outward, towards the Doctor, but it wasn't enough. The flowing, golden energy barely left her fingertips before dissipating. "I can do this," she told herself. "I can do this." She exhaled again, and the energy reached farther, but still disappeared. "What am I doing wrong?" But she knew. She needed to tap on her reserves, all of them. "Okay, time to go for broke, yeah?"

Reaching deeper than she ever had before, Rose sought and found the source of the power, the tiny golden ember that was the remaining sliver of the Time Vortex within her. As she grasped it, it flared to life.

"I am the Bad Wolf," she said again, but this time with the unearthly voice of the Time Goddess.

"Rose," Jackie said desperately behind her.

Without looking, Rose knew that her step-father was holding her mother back.

She channeled the full force of energy through herself, seeking the Doctor. But he wasn't here. It wasn't enough to just bring his body back; she needed to find him, his very essence. Extending her own soul outward, she searched, tracing his life line through time and space, and finally across the Void. And she found him. But not the right him. He had regenerated. He had a whole new life ahead of him, one that she would not disturb.

"I can see all that is, all that was, all that could be," she murmured. "An infinite number of universes stretch in front of me, and I can see them all." In an instant – a lifetime for the Bad Wolf – she found it: the sole timeline in which she saved him. And she grasped it, changing time backwards and forwards forever.

"I create myself," she said, and in that instant she realized why she had never found another Rose Tyler in any of the universes she had visited. There were countless other Petes, countless other Jackies, countless other Tonys, but only she was Rose Tyler. She had created herself for this purpose.

"I take the words… I scatter them through time and space, through two universes, to lead us here." She waved a hand, and the words left the walls and whirled around them before disappearing. "I create the legend of the Golden Goddess and the Bad Wolf to prepare the way."

As she spoke, she felt the fire of the Vortex course through her veins, burning every cell it touched, making her feel more alive than she ever had even as she knew it was killing her. The power surrounded her, coalescing into a cloud of pure light. She grimaced in pain.

"Now is the time of fulfillment. Now is the moment of completion," she said, forcing out the words. "I am Time. I am Now. I am The Moment. The Time War Ends!"

The energy swirled around her, creating a breeze that blew through the medbay, rattling the equipment on the shelves and blowing the women's hair in their faces. Jackie clung tightly to Pete's arm.

Her mind stretched out, expanding to fill Time and Space. And she found him, dispersed on the winds of time. But the effort was too much, the power too great. "Come to me, My Doctor. Come to me, My Love." She took a deep breath and exhaled pure golden light. "I. Bring. Life!"

The energy left her and engulfed the Doctor. As it was absorbed by his body it slowly disappeared. For a moment it appeared nothing would happen.

Then the wounds on his face and hands faded to nothingness.

A blush of pink spread from his scalp downwards, replacing the deathly pallor of his skin with a healthy hue, and then he gasped, inhaling air into empty lungs. Eyes wide with shock, he sat up and stared around him.

"Holy shit," Ianto muttered.

"I'm… I'm alive!" The Doctor laughed in disbelief. "How am I alive? I was regenerating. No, I died. And where am I?" A look of shock came over his face. "This body has only one heart. Why didn't you ever tell me it felt like this? It's disgusting. Oi, watch it, Time Boy!" he answered himself without missing a beat. "You're a guest here. I can send you right back where you came from!"

"Blimey," Jackie said, staring at him incredulously. "Having been dead has made him go mad."


	10. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine**

"Jackie?" the Doctor asked, puzzled, as he noticed her standing a distance away from the bed. "And Pete? And is this the TARDIS? It looks a bit different than usual. How are you both here? You're supposed to be in the parallel universe." He rolled his eyes. "Now I know why Donna always called us 'Dumbo'. Was I really this thick when I was you? We _are_ in the parallel universe."

"Mad," Jackie pronounced. "Absolutely barmy."

"Oh no no no no, Jackie, not mad," the Doctor told her. "Not mad at all, well, not unless you call a mild case of the Time Lord equivalent of multiple personality disorder madness. Which you could, I suppose." He rolled his eyes again. "Get to the point!" he snapped. "Right. Somehow we are both here, in this body. In the same body. How, I don't know, because we were definitely dead. Gone. Finito. Done. Bought the farm. Kicked the bucket. Bit the big one. Me regenerated, and him dead.

"Bad Wolf!" he shouted, interrupting himself. "Bad Wolf! That was the prophecy! Prophecies! The two would be reunited! That wasn't you and Rose; that was you and me! And by strengthening the link, I didn't prevent Bad Wolf from coming back, I must have set in motion the events that led to it! Of course I never imagined that we'd be reunited like this." His eyes widened. "Bad Wolf?" he asked.

He had said all that at breakneck speed, not pausing between thoughts or even hardly taking a breath, and the others stared at him openmouthed.

"Mad," Jackie said again.

"I did it," Rose whispered weakly, and the Doctor jerked around to face her. His jaw dropped as he stared at her, his expression a combination of shock and longing and love and worry.

"Rose," he breathed.

"I did it. You're alive." She smiled at him and then grimaced in pain. He instantly moved, catching her as she began to fall. "Hurts," she whispered. She fainted, and he lifted her up and gently laid her on the bed. The effort was more than his newly revived body could take, and he staggered backwards a few steps before sitting down next to her.

Visibly frightened, Jackie asked, "What's wrong with her?"

"She's going into shock," the Doctor said. Eyes narrowed, he scanned the room. "Do I have a sonic screwdriver here? Yes. Same place? Yes! You there…" His head cocked, and his brow furrowed. "Do I know you? You look familiar. Oh, for heaven's sake. Gwen! Left breast pocket of my jacket. Toss me my screwdriver," he ordered.

Gwen tossed it to him, and in one move he caught it and aimed it at the monitor above the bed. The screen began to display two sets of vital signs.

"Now I need someone to monitor us… Martha? Martha Jones? What are you doing here? Shut it, Spaceman! Ianto, we need tea, lots and lots of strong tea, as strong as you can make it. Plenty of tannins and free radicals." Ianto nodded. "And biscuits! Tosh, we need biscuits. Both of us need to stabilize our blood sugar. Chocolate would be better, has all those flavonoids as well, but I don't think we have any…"

"I'll go out and get some," Gwen said, and she left the room, followed by Ianto and Toshiko.

"Jackie, I need you to go with them, show them where everything is," the Doctor said.

"They'll be able to find everything," she told him. "S'not like your kitchen's all that big. Rose's my only daughter. I'm stayin'."

"Jackie, I'm going to need complete silence, and based on my previous experiences with you I sincerely doubt you're capable of it," he snapped.

"Oh, I like that," Jackie said sarcastically. "Comes back from the dead just as rude as ever. You'd think being dead would give you a better perspective on life."

"Oh, I don't have time for this. Jackie Tyler, shut up!" the Doctor ordered, and Jackie's eyes widened not only because of his words but because his accent had drifted North. "Pete, get 'er outa 'ere."

Pete grabbed his wife's arm and practically dragged her from the room. Once they had left, the Doctor turned to Owen and Martha.

"Rose's having a neural implosion," he told them. "Her brain is collapsing in on itself. I need to enter her mind and try to repair the neural pathways using my own memories. While I do that, since I was dead for a while and Rose's brain is imploding, I need you both to monitor our vital signs. What's your name again?" He let out a groan of exasperation. "Owen, since you're more familiar with my physiology, you monitor mine; Martha, you monitor Rose's."

On the monitor above his head were two columns of vitals, one labeled "The Doctor" and the other labeled "Rose". In addition to information on their heart rates, body temperature, blood pressure, and oxygen saturation were displays of their brain waves.

"I've never seen anything like this," Martha said. "Rose's brain activity is off the charts."

"And you have two brain waves," Owen said incredulously. "Almost but not quite identical."

"Stands to reason, doesn't it?" the Doctor answered.

"But you didn't the last time I examined you."

"Owen, later. Now I need complete silence in order to concentrate. This may take a while. Don't interrupt us unless our hearts stop or we stop breathing."

The Doctor lay down on his side next to Rose and took her head in his hands. He turned her to face him, moved his fingertips to her temples, and rested his forehead against hers to allow for the strongest link possible.

Then he slipped into her mind.

He found himself on a deserted alien planet. Overhead, stars and galaxies shone in purples and reds, blues and greens, yellows and oranges, swirling in the intricate dance of the universe while meteors and comets shot across the night sky in a blaze of glory.

"Primonius Prime, the dead center of the universe in both space and time," a familiar voice said next to him. His own.

He turned and saw the full Time Lord version of himself, his face only illuminated by the weak reflected light of one of the moons circling the planet. He was standing in an identical position to himself: trainer clad feet set about a foot apart, hands plunged deep into the pockets of his brown pinstriped trousers. His other self was staring up at the display above them.

"But why are we here?" the Time Lord continued. "Rose has never been here. Has she?"

"No. The new TARDIS can't travel in time yet," the Doctor told him. "But where better than Primonius to see all of Time and Space?"

"That reminds me. Before… before you said Bad Wolf."

"Yes," he answered. "Somehow Rose must have accessed the last of the power still left within her and brought us back. Both of us."

The Time Lord looked at him sharply. "What? The last of the power? What do you… never mind. Question for another time. But both of us. That should prove to be interesting."

"Tell me about it." The Doctor looked around the barren landscape. "She's not here." They both glanced upwards as lightning flashed across the sky over their heads. "Things are breaking down more quickly than I expected they would. We need to find her and as quickly as possible."

"If she's not here, she must have retreated into one of her memories. If her brain is collapsing, she's going to retreat to somewhere safe."

"The real question is where that is."

"You know her better than I do now," the Time Lord said. There was the tiniest hint of jealousy in his tone. "Where would she go? Where does she feel safest?"

"The subconscious is a funny thing. I'd like to think it's our house, but honestly, I'm not sure," the Doctor admitted. "Either way, while we look for her, we need to repair any damage we find along the way. We should start at opposite ends of her life. You start at the beginning and work forwards, and I'll start from now and work backwards."

The Time Lord nodded sharply. "Whichever one of us finds her first calls the other," he said and immediately disappeared.

Lightning flashed overhead again, followed by a roll of thunder. Lips pursed in worry, the Doctor looked again at the sky.

"Hang on, Rose," he whispered. "We're going to find you."

~oOo~

The Time Lord Doctor found himself on the Powell Estate, in the park outside the block of flats where Rose had grown up. He quickly scanned his surroundings: play equipment, park benches, car park, roads, and pavement.

The entire area was deserted.

"She's not here," he said under his breath, and as he jogged off in the direction of Jackie's former flat he heard the distant rumble of thunder.

~oOo~

"Rose?" the Doctor called.

She didn't answer.

After the planet in the center of the universe, he had found himself in their bedroom at the farmhouse. For a moment, he was surprised that he hadn't been in their TARDIS, as that was where they had been last, but the surprise was immediately replaced with panic. Their bedroom was empty. The bed, the chest of drawers, the nightstands, all were gone. As he raced through the house, searching for her, he was stricken to find that the whole house was empty, devoid of everything. Everything that showed the house belonged to them was gone.

He closed his eyes, using his own memories to repair the synapses surrounding her memories of the house. To his relief, when he opened his eyes, their things were back. Outside, lightning was visible through the window.

"Next, the Hub," he muttered.

~oOo~

Jackie's flat was empty. Not only was Rose not there, but none of their belongings were there. Everything that indicated the Tylers had lived there, from the secondhand furniture to the scattered books and magazines, from the photo albums to the knickknacks, were all gone. Even the bright pink paint on the walls of her room was now a generic off-white.

He closed his eyes tightly and when he opened them, it was all back: photos on the walls, second-hand furniture, old model telly, all the way down to used mugs on the table, a framed picture of Pete and Jackie's wedding on Rose's bureau, and Mr. Tedopoulos, Rose's teddy bear, on her bed.

"The TARDIS," he said to himself, expecting to see the console room, but he remained firmly in the same spot. He frowned. "Mickey's and Shareen's and Henrik's, then." And his surroundings shifted to Mickey's flat.

~oOo~

Ten minutes later Pete and Jackie walked into the medbay with Pete carrying a large tray, well-laden with tea and biscuits.

"Gwen's gone to buy the chocolate," he said in a low voice as he placed the tray on a counter near the bed.

"How are they?" Jackie asked.

Martha put a finger to her lips and motioned them out the door. After a quick glance at Owen, she followed them out into the hallway.

"I don't understand what she did, but the result is her brain is burning up from the inside out. He's trying to heal her telepathically," she told them. "So far things are stable, but I have to be honest with you, what he's doing is incredibly dangerous. For both of them."

~oOo~

Since he was only there mentally, traveling from place to place was instantaneous. The Doctor just needed to think of a place in order to find himself there. Within moments he managed to search the Hub, the flat where they had lived before they moved to the house, Torchwood Four, the mansion, and Torchwood One at Canary Wharf. In each place, he did his best to repair as many connections he could, but it felt like a losing battle. Everywhere he went, evidence of Rose's presence was gone until he forced the synapses to reattach.

While he was working backwards through Rose's life in Pete's World, his counterpart was working forwards through her memories of her life in their original universe. Once he had seen she wasn't on the Estate, he became convinced he wouldn't be the one to find her, but he still continued to retrace their steps, mentally visiting everywhere they had traveled together, just in case, doing his best to try to repair the damage to her mind that Bad Wolf and the Time Vortex had done.

Finally the two Doctors found themselves facing each other on the beach at Bad Wolf Bay much as they had in the real world. While they scanned the area for any sign of Rose, a strong wind blew in from across the bay. Thunder echoed off the surrounding hills.

"A storm's coming," the Time Lord Doctor said, looking up at the dark clouds gathering overhead. At his words, the part human Doctor turned to him, startled.

"That's what Rose said," he said. "She's been saying for a while that a storm was coming."

"Did you try the TARDIS?"

"I tried, repeatedly, but every time I ended up somewhere else."

"Me, too, almost as if I wasn't allowed there," the Time Lord Doctor told him. Overhead the clouds darkened and lightning flashed. "We need to find her. We're running out of time."

"Don't you think I know that?" he snapped. "Maybe if we try together."

The Time Lord nodded. "Together."

~oOo~

"Her pulse is becoming erratic." Martha's tone was professional, but her facial expression showed how worried she was.

"We can't interrupt them," Owen replied. "I hate to admit it, but I think he's her best shot. If he can't save her, I don't know how we could."

Martha nodded.

~oOo~

Instantly their surroundings shifted, and the Doctors found themselves in the console room of the TARDIS. But it wasn't the console room of their old TARDIS, nor was it the console room of the new one. Instead, it seemed to be a combination of the two, with the size of the first but the slightly different coloring of the second.

"My Doctor."

At the sound of Rose's voice, they turned as one. Semi-transparent, she stood in front of the console, shimmering like a ghost. She gazed lovingly at the Doctor in the brown pinstripes and gave him a small smile.

"My Doctor," she said again, this time looking at the Doctor in blue. "I wanted to save you."

"And you did," he told her. "Somehow you saved both of us."

"But the prophecy. The Ood said my song was ending," the Time Lord said. "They predicted my death."

"And you are," she said, turning to him. "In our home universe you are dead. Your incarnation is over, and a new one has taken your place. The Ood could foresee events in their own universe, but they couldn't see beyond its borders." She winced in pain, and her image flickered.

"Rose, you need to let go of the rest of the power," the Doctor in blue said.

"Not yet," she said. "I have one more thing to do first."

"Nothing you could need to do is worth risking your life," said the Doctor in brown.

"This is," she told him. She met his eyes, but somehow she appeared to be looking at both of them at the same time.

"I don't understand," the Doctor in brown told her.

"Don't you?" she asked.

The two Doctors exchanged glances.

"I think I do," the blue-suited Doctor said. He lifted his right hand and stared at it for a moment before meeting her eyes. "From the very beginning, from the moment this hand was cut off, all of it, all of it led here. Jack being in the right place to find it, the one person who would keep it safe and bring it back to me. Meeting Donna, not once but twice. Her touching the container that held my hand, creating the meta-crisis."

"On the Crucible, Dalek Caan said he hadn't been manipulating events, but someone clearly was," the brown-suited Doctor interjected. "Was it you?" he asked her.

The part human Doctor cocked his head and stared at her thoughtfully. "No, you didn't have to, did you? The potential was there all the time; the possibility of events unfolding exactly this way, however small, always existed. Bad Wolf just had to tweak the right timeline, encourage it a bit. We did the rest. From the sword fight on the Sycorax ship to inviting Donna along to aborting the regeneration…"

The other Doctor nodded. "I did all that."

"_We_ did all that," the Doctor corrected.

"But why choose this particular timeline?" the Time Lord asked.

"In an instant, I saw all of Time and Space," she said. "What was, what could be. And I saw the desire of your hearts. You, more than all your other incarnations, longed for a normal life. Secretly dreamed of becoming human. Your incarnation was born in joy and in love, yet it was filled with sadness and ended in pain. You who loved so deeply yet lost so much, you who sacrificed your own happiness for the happiness of others, who gave his life willingly… How could I not give you the desire of your hearts? How could I not give you your reward?"

"Reward? What reward?"

"To become human," the Doctor in blue said. "Or part human, actually."

"And I did, in you," the Doctor in brown responded.

"But that wasn't enough, was it?" the Doctor in blue asked her. "It's not his reward if he isn't here." His voice was quiet, resigned. "But that would mean I just prepared the way, didn't I? For him. The meta-crisis had to happen, had to occur, so that he'd have a body to go into when he regenerated. I was right in the first place. The two being reunited were the two of you. I was just a placeholder."

"No! Don't think like that!" the Doctor in brown argued, and they both turned to him. "If you were just a placeholder, why would she have bothered to bring you back in the first place?"

"Oh, My Doctor," Rose said, turning back to the Doctor in blue. Their eyes met, and the love she had for him shone in hers. "My Love, you have _never_ been a placeholder for anyone."

"The meta-crisis was necessary, to stop Davros and the Daleks. But we were not meant to live divided like this," the Time Lord said to him firmly. "The telepathic link between us proves that."

Rose gasped in pain, and they turned as one to face her. "A wise man once told me that everything has its time and everything dies," she said through gritted teeth. "It's now my time. It's time for my song to be over."

"No!" the blue-suited Doctor cried. "Rose, no! You can't!"

She shook her head. "Not Rose's song," she told him. "It is the end of the song of the Bad Wolf. I end it freely, and with it, the separation will end. The two shall be reunited. The time for duality is over, and the time of convergence is come."

She threw her head back, and the console room was filled with a blinding explosion of light. When the glare faded, only one Doctor remained in the console room.

Rose lay on the grating in front of the console, and he ran to her and pulled her into his arms. "Rose, come back to me. Rose, please…"

He opened his eyes to find himself lying on the bed in the medbay with his fingertips still on Rose's temples. "Rose, come back to me. Please, Rose," he quietly pleaded.

Rose breathed out, and a puff of pure golden light left her, only to be absorbed into the TARDIS wall. She slowly opened her eyes, and he sighed in relief.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

She nodded as she tried to sit up. "Yeah," she said. "You?"

Sitting up himself, he pulled her into his arms and hugged her tightly. "Now that I know you're okay, I'm better than alright. I'm fantastic."

She hugged him back, clinging to him as if she felt he was in danger of disappearing, but after a few moments, she pulled away and met his eyes.

"Are you… still you?" she asked.

"Oi, who else would I be, Earth girl?" he answered mock-indignantly. And then he chuckled. "There's just a little more of me than there was before." He paused thoughtfully. "Huh. Two sets of memories. Weird. Even weirder than new teeth."

With a laugh of both happiness and relief, she threw herself back into his arms, almost knocking him off the bed in the process. After another quick hug, she pulled away again.

"How do you feel?" she asked seriously. For a moment, he stared into space, considering.

"I feel," he said slowly, "I feel… whole."

With tears in her eyes, she took his hand and leaned in to kiss him, a kiss he quickly deepened.

"Oh, for God's sake," interjected Owen. "Give it a rest for at least a few minutes, will you? Tyler here almost died, and Doctor, you _were_ dead until about an hour ago."

Behind him, Martha snorted. "Oh, leave them alone, Owen. They're just happy to be alive. And I think they're cute."

"No, Owen's right." Spotting the tray on the counter, the Doctor inhaled deeply and grinned. He swung his legs over the edge of the bed and stood up, swaying a bit. "Evidently being dead affected me more than I expected. But that's nothing that a spot of tea wouldn't help." He poured some in a cup and took a gulp. "Not hot enough, but I'm sure Ianto would make us more. Gotta get back to the house and ask him."

"You two need your rest. I'll go ask him," Martha offered.

"Nah, we'll just go back in the house. The tea is more important than rest at this point. And I really think I could use a shower and a change of clothes." He glanced meaningfully down at himself. His shirt was torn from collar to waist, and he still had the gel on him from the defibrillator. "Besides, maybe Gwen is back with the chocolate." The Doctor swayed again, and this time Owen caught him. Owen nodded at Martha, who helped Rose to her feet. Rose leaned on her heavily, and Martha wrapped her arm around her waist to help her remain upright.

"Owen," the Doctor continued as Owen helped him from the room, "did Rose ever tell you that a cuppa once prevented an alien invasion? And that was just Jackie's tea. Just imagine what Ianto's could do."

"Maybe you want a cup of tea," Owen said, "but after the last few hours I could use a drink."

"It's awfully early for that, isn't it?" Martha asked as she and Rose followed them out the door.

Owen rolled his eyes. "Martha, I don't know how things work in Torchwood London, but in Cardiff, it's _never_ too early for a drink."


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten**

A half an hour later, everyone had gathered in the living room in the front of the house, the kitchen not being large enough to seat everyone.

The Doctor had showered and changed, and he was now wearing his blue pinstriped suit from the TARDIS paired with a maroon Oxford open at the neck and a dark blue Henley underneath. On his feet he wore his typical red trainers. When he had first come down the stairs, Rose had almost been startled to see the way he looked in it. Although he wore that exact outfit often, for some reason he looked odd to her eyes. Maybe it was the way he was wearing his hair, still stylishly messy but slightly different from usual, or perhaps it was the way he carried himself. At any rate, she couldn't tell exactly what was different about him, and she had decided to ignore it.

They had immediately settled on one end of the sofa, with Rose nestled against him and tucked neatly under his arm. Jackie sat on the other end of the sofa next to her. Having not only seen the Doctor dead but Rose glowing with the power of the Time Vortex, she wanted to assure herself that they were all right and had refused to leave Rose's side from the time they had come back into the farmhouse from the TARDIS.

As per the Doctor's request, Ianto had made a fresh pot of tea, one that the Doctor immediately proclaimed as being good enough to save the universe if need be, but most people had eschewed it in favor of the beer and whiskey Gwen had also bought, on Owen's request via mobile, when she had gone out for the chocolate. Only the Doctor, Rose and Jackie had opted for a cuppa, and even Jackie had put a shot of the whiskey in her mug when she had poured her tea.

On the coffee table in front of the sofa lay the remnants of their makeshift breakfast, primarily biscuits and a variety of things containing chocolate. Since the Doctor hadn't specified what he wanted, Gwen had purchased almost everything she could find: chocolate digestives, doughnuts, brownies, pudding, cake, and just plain chocolate bars. She had even bought hot chocolate, something the Doctor had declared as perfect for their physical and psychic conditions and stated he'd have some of just as soon as he had finished his tea.

Since the Torchwood staff had witnessed Rose saving him, as well as attempted to save him themselves, the Doctor had felt that they deserved an explanation for what they had witnessed, if not owed one. He didn't like discussing regeneration or Rose's time as Bad Wolf, but the others already knew part of it, and Pete and Jackie even more, and both the Doctor and Rose felt that the others had earned their trust.

"Somehow when I had taken the Time Vortex out of her, I had missed a sliver of it," he told them. "For years it was lying dormant within her, until she began crossing the Void with the Dimension Cannon. Something about the stress of repeatedly crossing the Void triggered it to become active again, and over the course of the past few months she learned how to access it and control it somewhat. I'm guessing that the Time Vortex ember created the changes to her brain structure and the unnatural healing she's been experiencing, and they in turn allowed her to use it and control it."

"But what about you?" Owen asked. "Your EEG had two distinct brain waves right after you were brought back to life, and now it doesn't again."

The Doctor grimaced and pulled on his ear with his free hand. "Well," he began. When he didn't continue, Rose answered for him.

"I told you about the accident that split him in two," she said to Owen. "He and the other Doctor had become telepathically linked, and when the other Doctor was dying in the other universe, so was he. When I brought him back, somehow I brought both of them back here. Or at least this version of him."

"This version?" Martha asked.

"When Time Lords are in danger of dying," Rose answered, "they can do this thing called regenerating. In order to save their lives, their whole body changes."

"And more than that. When a Time Lord regenerates, everything about the previous incarnation changes as well," the Doctor continued. "The core self lives on, but the personality – likes, dislikes, mannerisms – all the things that made that incarnation unique is gone forever. But somehow, when Rose brought me back, she brought all of me back, both the me you know, and this version of me from the other universe."

"I guess that explains the two brain waves at the beginning, but it doesn't explain why you only have one now," Owen said.

The Doctor and Rose exchanged glances. "Somehow, while I was trying to save her, Rose managed to re-merge both of us back into one single person."

"How on Earth did you do that?" Pete asked.

"I don't know," Rose said. "I don't really remember very much. I remember being desperate to bring him back and trying to access the power, but then after that there's only bits and pieces."

"It's a miracle she survived at all," the Doctor told them. "If her brain didn't have double the connections of a normal human brain, she wouldn't have survived as long as she did. Her brain would have burned out within minutes."

"I've got a question," Toshiko said. "If you are a Time Lord, why didn't you regenerate?"

"He's only part Time Lord," Rose answered.

"The accident that created this body made me part human," the Doctor said. "I can't regenerate anymore."

"Well, if Rose brought you both back here," Jackie said, "what happened to himself back in the other universe?"

"I don't know," the Doctor said. "I felt myself beginning to regenerate, but after that, nothing until I found myself back on the examination table in the medbay."

"He's alright," Rose said softly. As she spoke, she got a faraway look in her eyes. "For a moment I saw all of Time and Space. Like I said, I don't remember much, but I remember seeing him and knowing that he would be okay, that he wouldn't be traveling alone anymore." Silence fell over the group at her words. Even though most of them had never met the other Doctor, and none of them had met that incarnation, the moment felt solemn and no one wanted to be the first to interrupt the quiet.

The Doctor looked down at Rose thoughtfully. Even though this incarnation was fully here, he held no doubts in his mind that she would continue to love the other him, no matter the incarnation, and he felt a twinge of jealousy. But just a twinge. Far less than he had felt before. After all, she didn't know the next him and couldn't miss him like she had, well, him.

Odd to think that way, he thought. Both of him had been jealous of the other, and now both of him were here. So he'd been jealous of himself? In stereo, no less. It was enough to give him a headache.

After a moment Rose looked up at him and gave him a soft smile, one he returned. He had missed her so much, he thought, and then was puzzled by the thought. He hadn't missed her. He'd been with her the whole time.

But part of him hadn't. The dichotomy between two completely separate memories of the same experience wasn't completely without precedent, he had run into previous versions of himself on occasion, but this felt a little different somehow, parallel rather than linear, and it was a little disconcerting.

Pete eventually cleared his throat, breaking the silence, and the Doctor was grateful for the distraction from his train of thought.

"The two of you need to be checked again," Pete said. "And Rose, Owen's been saying for months that you need some time off."

"And even more so now," Owen added.

"I'd say the two of you need to take a break," Pete continued. "As of right now, Rose, you're on medical leave, and you aren't coming back until you get a clean bill of health."

"I feel fine," Rose protested. "And I can't just sit home and do nothing."

"We won't," the Doctor assured her.

"You're darned right you won't," Jackie told them. "You still haven't come home for Christmas."

The Doctor stared at Jackie. "Christmas? Is it Christmas?" he asked. And then his eyes widened. "Oh, yes, it's Christmas! Can't believe I forgot for a moment. Sorry for ruining everyone's Christmas. I don't usually have very good luck with Christmas."

"Well, it isn't Christmas anymore," Jackie informed him. "It's Boxing Day."

"You didn't ruin anyone's Christmas, Doctor," Pete said with a pointed look at his wife. "But we probably should all be getting back home." As everyone rose to leave, it was decided that Ianto, who had arrived in Torchwood's big black SUV, would give Pete, Jackie and Martha a ride to the airport where they could catch the next zeppelin flight back to London.

Pete turned back to the Doctor and Rose. "You two are coming back with us, aren't you?"

"No," the Doctor told him. "We'll meet you there. That way we'll have our own transport. Unless of course you want to come with us. We may even beat you there."

"Transport?" Jackie's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "That doesn't mean what I think it means, does it?" She continued without allowing him to answer. "There's no way I'm going to let you fly me around in that tree of yours. And just you make sure you two arrive today, not Boxing Day a year from now."

"Are you certain you are okay here by yourselves?" Martha asked, ignoring Jackie's comments, mostly because she didn't understand them. "You were both in a bad way just a couple of hours ago. You really should have another exam before we leave just to make certain."

"We'll be fine," Rose said.

"I'll examine Rose myself before we leave," the Doctor said.

Owen opened his mouth, but before he could say anything Toshiko punched him.

Rose rolled her eyes. "Shut up, Owen."

"He's been good for hours," Toshiko said. "I don't know how he's managed it. I'll take him out of here before he makes a complete arse of himself."

As the others left, Jackie pulled her daughter into a tight hug.

"Honestly, Mum, we'll be right behind you."

"Promise?"

"I promise," Rose answered.

Jackie let go of her, only to grab the Doctor next. "You scared us all," she said. "Now don't you go dyin' on us again."

"I'll try my best not to," he replied.

"See that you do," she said firmly.

She grabbed his face and gave him an overly wet kiss. He tried to hide a grimace of disgust until she was out the door.

"Bleh," he said. He pulled a face as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "Your mother needs to learn how to control her saliva. Of course, that's more Pete's problem than mine, thank goodness."

He turned back to Rose. She was biting her lip uncertainly, and in a rush he realized that this was the first time they had been alone together since the convergence. He suddenly felt nervous himself. He was the same person he had been just a short few hours before, but in some way he felt different, as if he had regenerated without his body changing. If he felt that way, how must she be feeling?

"I'm still me, Rose Tyler," he said.

She gave him a small smile and nodded. He held out his arms, and to his relief she fell into them. He closed his eyes tightly and buried his face in her hair. He knew it had been only a matter of hours since he had held her like this, breathing in her scent and feeling her body pressed against his, but it felt like it had been years. Of course, it _had_ been years for part of him, he reminded himself. His heart thudded painfully in his chest, overwhelmed at how close he had come to never having this again, both through regeneration and death.

After several long moments, she pulled away, wiping her face. She had been crying, and he realized he had been as well.

She jerked her head in the direction of the stairs. "I'm gonna go get ready," she said.

"Let me check you out first," he said, leading the way back to the sofa. Forgetting for a moment that he had placed his sonic in the breast pocket of his jacket, he put his hand in his trouser pocket and was surprised to feel velvet rather than metal. For a second he wondered what it was.

And then he knew. It was the ring box. For Rose's engagement ring.

The Doctor quickly withdrew his hand and made a show of patting his pockets in search of his screwdriver. "Ah, here it is," he said.

He sat down next to her on the sofa. The sonic whirred as he slowly scanned her.

"Mum didn't mean anything by it, you know," Rose said. The comment seemed more intended to fill the quiet than anything, and intent on what he was doing, he was only half-listening.

"By what?" he asked absently.

"By her mentioning Christmas and Boxing Day," she said. "She's really not that shallow."

"I actually do know that," he told her. "But now that she knows we're alright, the other customers at Harrods and Erving's had better watch out. Don't forget, I've seen her on a Boxing Day foray. And this time she's gotten a late start. She'll be out there shoving her way through the crowds trying to make up for lost time. I pity Pete and Tony."

"Oh, yeah," Rose agreed. "You shoulda seen her last year. She knocked three people over trying for a silk dress that wasn't even her size."

The Doctor snorted. "Why does that not surprise me?" The sonic in his hand made a sort of dinging sound, not unlike the sound of an egg timer, indicating it was done with the scan. "Hmm," he said as he examined the readings. Then he took her hand and licked her palm. She pulled a face.

"You're one to complain about saliva," she said in disgust as she yanked her hand back. She wiped it on her sleeve. "So, what's the verdict?"

"I can't find any remaining trace of the Time Vortex in you. You still have tiny traces of artron in your system, but no more than would be expected for anyone who had traveled in time," he told her.

"And that's good, yeah?" she asked. "I'm alright?"

"Yeah," he agreed. "We'll still need to check you again in a few weeks, but according to this you're fine."

"Good." She stood up. "And now that that's over with…"

He watched as she headed up the stairs. Once she was out of sight, he shoved his hand back in the pocket of his trousers and pulled out the ring box. He stared at it thoughtfully before looking back up the stairs, then he shoved it back in his pocket and headed outside.

Back in the TARDIS, he stared at the console room, puzzled. She seemed… different somehow, as if he had expected one thing and had been given something similar but not identical. He knew her inside and out, had grown her himself from a small branch of coral he could hold in his hand, but somehow she felt unfamiliar. Her mushroom-shaped console was slightly… smaller, he thought, and the tree-like pillars were thinner and in slightly different places. Then there was the lighting color. The light being produced by the roundels was a bit more yellow, the Time Rotor's a bit bluer.

With a start, he realized he was comparing her to the old TARDIS. But this one wasn't her; the relationship between the two was more like mother and daughter rather than twin.

The double memory phenomenon he was experiencing was more pronounced than he had expected, and he realized it could take a little while to fully integrate himself with, well, himself. Not too long, he predicted.

Well, not so much predicted as hoped.

The Doctor crossed to the console and laid his hands on its bumpy surface. He closed his eyes and felt a familiar yet slightly unfamiliar hum in the back of his mind.

"Not quite certain you know me, are you?" he asked aloud. "You've never been through a regeneration before. Well, this isn't quite a regeneration, but the effects are similar." He ran a comforting hand along the console. "I'm still me. Promise."

He opened his eyes. The lights of the console room had slightly brightened in what he interpreted was an indication of cautious acceptance by the young TARDIS, and he sighed in relief. He didn't know what he would have done if she had outright rejected him. The possibility was unthinkable.

"It'll all work out," he murmured, as much to reassure himself as the TARDIS. Then he pulled out his screwdriver. "Now, let's just see how all of this has affected you."

~oOo~

Feeling a strong sense of déjà vu, after she showered and dressed Rose headed out to the TARDIS in search of the Doctor. Unlike the last time, he wasn't leaning against the console waiting for her. Instead, he was lying on his back, half underneath the console, adjusting some bit of wiring.

"Oh, Rose, there you are," he said, his voice slightly muffled due to his sonic screwdriver being in his mouth. He jumped up, narrowly missing hitting his head on the underside of the console, and shoved his screwdriver in his pocket. "I've got all our bags and presents on board. Ready to go?"

"So we really are taking the TARDIS," she said.

"Yep." He grinned, a huge bright grin that lit up his face.

For an instant, the image of a tree flying just above the M-4 crossed through her mind. Very Harry Potter-ish, she thought. "And the idea of flying a tree from here to London doesn't seem to you like a bad way of maintaining a low profile?" she asked.

"We're not flying a tree to London," he said, his voice sounding amused yet still slightly indignant.

"So how are we going to get there, then?"

It didn't seem possible, but his grin widened. "We should be able to enter the Time Vortex," he told her. "When the last of it left you, it was absorbed by the TARDIS. I've been scanning her, and that bit of Time Vortex from you should be just enough to put her over the critical mass of power she needs to enter the Vortex."

"And if it isn't?"

His manic energy faded, and he rubbed the back of his neck. A clear tell that he didn't want to admit something. "Well, then I suppose we might be flying a tree to London," he admitted. "But, the TARDIS won't look like a tree! Or it will, but people won't know it." He pulled two cords out of a pocket. "Perception filters! Remember, Rose? I put a couple of these on the outside walls of the TARDIS just in case. People won't notice us. Or shouldn't." The last bit was said under his breath, as if he didn't want her to hear it but couldn't prevent himself from saying it out loud. He did have a bit of a gob.

His grin returned. "Are you ready?"

She grinned back excitedly. "For our first flight in the TARDIS? I've been ready for months!"

With her words, he began to circle the console but then stopped and stared at the controls for a moment. He frowned.

"Is there something wrong?" she asked.

"No," he said quickly, a half an octave higher than normal. "Not at all. The controls are just a bit different than the old TARDIS is all. To be expected, of course. Even with my old TARDIS the controls would change with a change in desktop. Just take a minute to familiarize myself."

He made his way around the console, scanning the controls. "Ahh, here it is. The formalizing timpanous dematerializer. And the dematerialization initiator. And the…" He spun a knob, flipped a handful of switches, and lowered a large lever. The console room floor began to vibrate and the Time Rotor began to rise and fall with a familiar repetitive whine.

"Ha!" the Doctor cried in triumph. He grabbed Rose and spun her around in a celebratory hug before rushing around the console making adjustments to the controls.

In what seemed like seconds, the Time Rotor slowed to a stop with a familiar wheezing and groaning sound. The Doctor crossed to the door, opened it, and looked out.

"Oh," he said.

"Oh?" Rose asked as she joined him in the doorway. "We're at the mansion. That's where we were headed, yeah?"

Before he could answer, a set of French doors were flung open and Jackie barged from the house. "'S about time you got here," she said. "Whatever happened to beatin' us here? It's almost time for tea."

~oOo~

Since it was Boxing Day and all the servants had the day off, tea was a simple affair. Well, as simple as leftovers from Christmas dinner at the Tyler mansion could be. They had had turkey with all the trimmings: chestnut stuffing, roasted potatoes, pigs in a blanket, parsnips and Brussels sprouts, cranberry sauce, gravy, and a bread pudding that was unique to Pete's World. This was followed by traditional Christmas pudding with a hard, brandy sauce and homemade vanilla ice cream, the latter simply because Pete and Tony liked it.

After they had stuffed themselves, they gathered back in the living room, dodging the wooden train set that was sprawled all over the floor and that Father Christmas had given Tony.

There were a few presents under the enormous tree: the ones that the Doctor and Rose had brought from Cardiff, the ones to them from Rose's parents, and the one to the Doctor from Rose that Jackie had picked up from Erving's. Rose was relieved to see it there. She had almost forgotten about it in the chaos surrounding the past few days.

They let Tony open the first present. Rose's little brother already had so many things, so Rose had chosen to get him a large, colorful storybook filled with child-friendly versions of fairy tales.

Jackie oohed and ahhed over the silk scarf Rose had chosen for her. It was turquoise with a delicate floral motif in ivory. She immediately wrapped it around her neck. It looked incongruous with the baby blue velour track suit she had on, but no more so than the dangling sapphire earrings she was also wearing which had been a present from Pete.

Pete's present was a rare off-world brandy that he had once shared with Jake, Mickey and Rose when Rose had first been trapped in this universe.

His face lit up. "I don't know how you got a hold of this," he said, "but I've been looking for another bottle for years."

"Ianto," Rose told him. "I don't know how he does it, but given enough time he can find almost anything."

"Perhaps I should bring him back to London," Pete said speculatively, trying to hide a smirk.

"Don't be poaching my employees, Dad," she said firmly. "I may be on leave, but when I come back I want my full staff there."

The next present was for Tony again. The little boy's face sank when the Doctor handed him a narrow box about eight inches long wrapped in plain blue paper. As with most children, he associated the size of the present with the amount of fun. A small present was a boring present.

"Thank him, Tony," Jackie scolded with a gentle swat on the arm.

"Thanks," he mumbled.

"Why don't you open it and save your thanks for afterwards?" the Doctor suggested.

Tony ripped the paper off and opened the box. And then gasped and threw himself at the Doctor.

"A sonic screwdriver! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"

The Doctor grinned at Tony, while Pete and Jackie stared at the Doctor in shock.

"What?" he asked when he saw the looks on their faces. "It's a toy. Whirs, lights up, can make things vibrate a bit, that's all. You didn't think I'd give him a real one, did you?"

"No, no, of course not," Pete said quickly, not wanting to admit that for a second he had.

Jackie, on the other hand, was still scowling. "Who knows what you'd do," she stated flatly.

The Doctor ignored her.

Rose sat back and watched while he demonstrated to Tony how to make it work. He really was very good with him, she thought.

"Our present to you two was too big to fit under the tree," Pete said, handing Rose a large envelope. "We really didn't know what to give you. We knew that you'd have the TARDIS working soon, maybe not this soon but soon enough, so a holiday didn't make any sense. Nor did a car, same reason. And you already have a houseful of furniture and, well…" He shrugged.

By this point Rose had opened the envelope and stared at the contents. "I don't understand," she said.

"It's the deed to the vacant property next to your own. I figure the one thing you need more than anything else is privacy, and not having neighbors there would go a long way in helping ensure that."

"Pete, I'm gobsmacked," the Doctor said. "This is too much. We can't possibly accept this."

"You can and you will," Pete said firmly. "It's only money, and a small price to pay for our peace of mind. Privacy is hard to come by on this planet, and the more you have, the safer you'll be."

"Thanks, Dad," Rose said quietly. She rose and gave her stepfather a kiss on the cheek. Then she did the same with her mother. "Thanks, Mum."

"You're welcome, sweetheart," Jackie replied.

"Yes, thank you," the Doctor said. "Thank you both very, very much."

"There's one more present here!" Tony yelled, breaking the mood. He had pulled a long, rectangular box out from behind the tree and was carrying it across the room. "It's for you, Doctor!"

"Oh, really?" he said, as the little boy handed it to him. "Wow. Wonder what it could be?"

"Why don't you open it and find out?" Rose suggested. She bit her lip, trying to hide a grin.

The Doctor raised an eyebrow at her before turning his attention back to the present. "Alright, what do we have here?" he said. He ripped off the paper and lifted the lid of the box. His jaw dropped when he saw the contents. "I, uh, I don't know what to say. I am truly speechless. Totally and completely without words."

Jackie rolled her eyes. "For someone without words, you sure talk a lot," she told him. "Try just saying thank you."

He looked up and met Rose's eyes. "Thank you," he whispered.

"Go ahead, try it on," she urged.

His face broke out into an enormous grin as he jumped up and pulled the long brown overcoat out of the box. "I can't believe it!" he exclaimed as he examined it. "Same color, same weight, same blue liner, even the same number of buttons on the back!" He pulled it on and spun in a circle. "Even does the same flappy thing the other one did!" He grabbed Rose and spun again, this time with her in his arms.

"Oi!" Jackie protested as she ducked, trying to avoid getting kicked in the head. "Not in the house! You'll break something!"

The Doctor gently set Rose down and pulled her into a hug. "Thank you," he whispered into her ear.

"Merry Christmas, Doctor," she said.

"Merry Christmas to you, too, Rose Tyler."


	12. Chapter 11

**a/n: And so we come to the end. But not the end. I realized as I wrote the last few chapters I am not ready to let these characters go. I have an idea for another story, but it's unlikely to be ready to post until sometime next year.**

**Thank you so much for reading this 'verse. I appreciate each and every one of you.**

* * *

**Chapter Eleven**

The Doctor sat in the living room of the Tyler mansion with an arm around Rose as Tony tried to vibrate everything in sight with his toy sonic screwdriver and Jackie nattered away about something or other. Pete sat back watching it all as he sipped on a glass of the off-world brandy he and Rose had given him. The Doctor, on the other hand, hardly noticed the normal, overly domestic activity around him. Instead his mind was focused almost entirely on one thing and one thing only, the small velvet ring box buried deep in his pocket.

For a brief moment at the farmhouse he had not known what it was, had forgotten he was planning on giving it to Rose, had even forgotten he had made it. He knew it was as a result of the convergence; he expected to find tiny gaps in his memory as the melding together of their experiences and personalities continued, but he truly had not expected to have forgotten anything as large as his decision to propose to Rose.

So as the chaos continued, as Jackie and Rose talked, as Tony attempted to sonic his wooden train, and as Pete decided to turn on telly in hopes of finding a match, the Doctor became lost in thought.

"Doctor. Doctor!" Jackie's harsh, piercing voice calling him startled him back into the present. It was perhaps the only thing that could have. He looked around in surprise. He had been concentrating so deeply on the problem of the gaps in his memories that he hadn't even realized that Rose had left the room.

"Hmm?"

"I asked you what you got Rose for Christmas," she told him.

Before he could answer, Rose's voice came from the doorway. "He surprised me with the fact that the TARDIS could travel."

"That's it?" Jackie said incredulously.

"No," her daughter answered. "He wrote a piece of music for me. It was beautiful. Gorgeous."

Jackie turned back to him. "I didn't know you were musical."

"He plays the piano. Brilliantly, in fact," Rose told her as she joined him back on the sofa.

He put on a wide grin. "Part of that is Donna. One hundred words a minute," he said brightly. He held up his hands and wiggled his fingers.

"You should play it for her," Rose suggested, bumping his shoulder with hers.

"Yeah," Jackie said. "Got a piano in the music room after all. Why we even have a music room is beyond me. 'S not like anyone plays. Well, Tony will. We'll get him lessons once he's a little older, 'a course. Never had a chance to do anythin' like that with Rose. If they didn't have it at school or at the youth center she couldn't do it. So she did gymnastics. Good thing they had that cos she was good at it. Got the bronze in the under 7's, you know. Anyway, if you can play, you should play it for us. Get some use out of the thing for a change."

As usual, Jackie said it all in a rush, hardly taking a breath, and also as usual, the Doctor found her train of thought dizzying. And all of a sudden it was too much. In the last twenty-four hours he had seen the Time Lords escape the Time Lock and get sent back into it, had both regenerated and died, had saved Rose from dying, had converged with his other self, and now was doing domestic with Jackie. When he really wanted, needed, to be alone with Rose.

"Yes, and we'll do that, but first…" He jumped up and hauled Rose to her feet. "One more thing I've got to show you, Rose. This way!" He yanked on her hand and dragged her from the room, grabbing his new coat on the way. Rose, not expecting it, stumbled before she got her feet under her. Jackie, Pete and Tony followed in their wake.

When she realized he was headed out of the house, she pulled him to a stop just long enough to grab her own coat. He then continued, rushing her out the side door as they both pulled on their coats.

Outside night had already fallen, but motion sensitive lights as well as the light pouring through the windows illuminated the area outside the French doors. In front of them stood the large English oak that was the TARDIS, complete with the heart carved into the trunk that held the invisible doorknob. Rose looked curiously at him.

"I don't understand," she said.

"Wait for it," he told her. He began to pat down his pockets, finally shoving his hand in his left trouser pocket far deeper than it should have been able to go. "Ahh. There it is."

Rose wrinkled her forehead in puzzlement when she saw the object he had pulled from his pocket. "An electronic key for a car?"

"No. Well, yes," he said, immediately correcting himself. "But not for a car. For the TARDIS. We'll still have standard keys, but this one…" He pressed a button, and the door swung open. Another press and the door closed. "And…" He drew out the word as he pressed another button.

The air around the TARDIS began to shimmer. Through the distortion, they could see it shorten and narrow and its color fade to a nondescript medium grey. When it was done, in front of them stood a plain metal cabinet approximately four feet wide and seven feet in height. Rose's jaw dropped, and the Doctor grinned.

He pressed the button again, and in front of them stood a tall, Doric column. Again and the column turned into a statue of an angel, its wings drooping and its hands covering its face.

"Not that one," he said, grimacing, and pressed yet again.

And then in front of them stood a familiar blue box.

"The old TARDIS!" Tony cried from behind them.

"Nope," the Doctor answered. "Still the new TARDIS. She just has a working chameleon circuit now. It lets her blend in with the surroundings."

"I knew she could change, but seeing it with my own eyes is something else," Rose said.

"If the TARDIS is working, does this mean you're taking off?" Pete asked.

"Well," the Doctor began.

"Can I go too?" Tony pleaded, interrupting him. "Please?"

"Absolutely not," Jackie said firmly.

"Sorry, Tony," the Doctor interjected before Tony could begin to whinge. He shoved the key back in his pocket and took Rose's hand. "Maybe some other time. This time it's just going to be the two of us."

Jackie looked from Rose to the Doctor and back again. "So you two really are goin'? Right now? Oh, why do I bother askin'," she said without missing a beat. "'A course you are."

"We won't be long," the Doctor said. And then glanced nervously at Rose. "That is, if you want to go."

Rose stared at him incredulously. "Of course I do. Do you even need to ask? Where are we going?"

"You'll see," he told her.

"But it's Christmas," Jackie protested. "Well, Boxing Day, but still."

"We've got a time machine, Jackie," he said. "We can be back ten seconds after we've left."

Jackie rolled her eyes. "I've heard that one before," she said darkly and then sighed. "Well, 's not as if I could stop you. Just be safe and come home soon."

With hugs all around, just in case ten seconds turned out to be slightly longer than that, they said their goodbyes, and the Doctor and Rose headed into the TARDIS.

~oOo~

Within minutes the TARDIS came to a stop with a screech and a loud thud, but the materialization was so smooth the Doctor and Rose barely swayed when they landed.

"That was a much quieter landing than the old TARDIS used to have," Rose said.

The Doctor ran a hand along the edge of the console. "She's a brilliant girl, isn't she?" he said proudly. "Not that our old TARDIS wasn't, of course. She had just been through so much over the years, particularly during the Time War, and she hadn't had much time to recover when we first met. Plus there was the business of being designed for six pilots. Our beautiful girl has designed herself to only need two."

She met his eyes and slowly smiled. "You and me."

He smiled back. "Yeah. You and me."

After several long seconds of staring at one another, the Doctor cleared his throat and gestured to the door. "Shall we?"

Rose's grin brightened. She nodded, rushed to the door, and went outside.

And stopped.

She stared around herself in shock and horror. Rather than the dark she had somewhat expected, it was twilight and she could see that they had landed on a beach. But not just any beach.

There was a light breeze coming in from the bay; it was nippy, but it wasn't carrying the bite of winter.

She heard the Doctor walk out behind her and pull the TARDIS door closed.

"I don't understand," she said. "This is Dårlig Ulv Stranden_._ I told you I never wanted to come back here."

He didn't answer so she turned to face him. He was scanning the horizon, hands plunged deep in his trouser pockets. He had evidently known the weather wouldn't be cold, because he had left his new brown overcoat in the TARDIS.

She flashbacked to the recurring dream she had had in recent months about the beach. All the elements were the same: the breeze, the twilight, the blue Police Box shaped TARDIS, him in his blue suit.

He had left her in that dream.

"I told you I never wanted to come back here," she said again.

"Funny thing, memory," he said without looking at her. "You can remember a time or a place, and then when you come back, somehow it doesn't seem the same. Even if you come back to the same time and place you were before.

"In some ways the beach seems exactly as it did the last time we were here; it's about the same temperature, the same light coming in from across the water. It should seem the same, you know. We've traveled almost six months into the past. We were on this beach, right here, only three hours ago. Right now, at this very instant, you and I are aboard a zeppelin somewhere over the North Sea." For a moment he looked up at the sky before returning to look at the horizon. "At the same time, right now I've just left Donna in the care of her mother and grandfather. Two sets of memories. And both mine.

"You know, I've always hated this beach," he continued. "But for one instant, one brief, shining moment I loved it, because you were in my arms and I was kissing you. Yet at the same time, at that same instant I hated it. I felt as if one of my hearts was ripped out of my chest as I saw someone else hold you in his arms and kiss you. Me, but not me."

Finally he turned and faced her. "I want a do over."

"What?" she asked.

"A do over. I want a do over. It's when something goes wrong and you go back and pretend –"

She waved her hand impatiently. "I know what a do over is. What do you want to do over?"

"Rose, when we were last on this beach, I didn't answer your question and then I left without saying goodbye. And leaving you here was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do."

"But… but you did answer and you did stay," she said, confused.

"Oh, yes," he breathed. "Yes, I did. I did stay. And I did answer, but part of me didn't, and neither of us said what we really wanted to say."

"What did you want to say?"

"Ask me again and I'll tell you."

She bit her lip nervously. "I, uh, I don't…"

"You remember," he said.

She took a deep breath. "Okay." She nodded. "Okay. When we were on this beach last time…"

He shook his head. "When I last stood on this beach…"

"When I last stood on this beach…" Her voice trailed off as she tried to remember something that she had tried so hard to forget.

"On the worst…" he prompted.

"On the worst day of my life, what was the last thing you said to me?"

"I said, 'Rose Tyler'."

"And how…" Her voice broke as she relived the hated memory in her mind. "And how was that sentence going to end?"

"Oh, Rose Tyler," he said slowly. He drew out the words, emphasizing each one. "I love you, too."

She smiled at him. "But that's what you said before. You did say that."

"Yeah, I did," he agreed, "but not this part. I offered to spend my life with you if you wanted, but what I really wanted to say was, 'Rose Tyler, I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Please say you will.'"

"Of course I will—" she began, but he interrupted her.

"This probably isn't the best place for this, but..." he said as he began rummaging in his pocket. She gasped as he pulled out a blue, velvet box. Her hands flew to her mouth as he opened the box and withdrew a ring. "Rose Tyler, would you marry me?"

"Yeah, not the best place," she agreed, fighting off tears of happiness. "Oh, you are completely mental, picking this of all places to propose." She laughed, and he laughed with her. "Of course I'll marry you!"

She flew into his arms and he caught her up, lifting her high off the ground and swinging her back and forth. When he finally set her back down, he took her left hand and slipped the ring on her finger.

"To be fair," he said, "I was going to ask you two days ago, on Christmas Eve before all of this started. But now I'm glad I didn't."

"Why?" she asked.

"Because this way you know that _all_ of me is asking, not just part."

While they had been talking it had grown darker and the light breeze had grown stronger and colder. Rose shivered.

"Well, now that you've asked me," she said, "we should probably get back."

The Doctor pulled a face. "Oh, do we have to?" It came out as a whinge. "I thought that since the TARDIS is working, and she is a time machine, and it's been so long since we've traveled together, I thought maybe a short side trip might be in order."

"I entirely concur," she told him, trying to sound serious. "How long are we gonna be gone?"

"Not long," he said. "I don't know if you remember, but before the convergence, when you were still Bad Wolf, you told me that I secretly wanted a normal, human life. And I realized that that's true, as long as it's with you. But I don't want to give up traveling entirely." He looked up at the stars that had begun to come out. "It's an entirely new universe, Rose Tyler, filled with wonders neither of us have ever seen. I think it's time we go see some of it."

"Yeah," she agreed. She slipped her hand in his. "Where do you want to go first?"

He grinned down at her and then looked back up. He pointed at a faint star that was nearly overhead. "Maybe that way. No," he pointed at another. "Maybe that way."

~oOo~

_And so I died – only to be reborn into another universe. And through the sacrifice of the Bad Wolf, I was rejoined to my other self. I know I'll die eventually. But until then, I'll be able to live the life I had always dreamed of living: a part human life with a house and throw pillows and jobs with the love of my life at my side. _

_But I'm still the Doctor. I'm still part Time Lord. A Time Lord with wanderlust and a new TARDIS. And so we'll travel as well, seeing the universe and having adventures and maybe running into bits of trouble along the way. _

_It's everything I've ever dreamed of._

_Whether in the TARDIS or on Earth, it will be the Doctor with Rose Tyler._

_Just as it should be._


End file.
